Pascal Coin(PASC)

Bitcoin ETFs give investors exposure to price movements but not to the financial ownership and sovereignty that makes crypto different from other financial assets, says Pascal Gauthier, Chairman and CEO at Ledger.

Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier recently addressed the community about the recent hack that impacted Ledger and its systems. Gauthier’s message to the community brought significant relief to users and stakeholders following confirmation that the hack had been neutralized.

The artist made an NFT of the crypto hardware wallet executive for our Most Influential package.

Crypto wallet company Ledger created a controversial seed recovery service, something newbies truly need, but suffered through a massive backlash.

Attorneys Pascale Guerrier, Richard Best and Robert MacDonald Moye representing the U.S. SEC in its ongoing lawsuit against Ripple have withdrawn from the case.

Hardware wallet provider Ledger has announced that it is pushing back the launch of its key-recovery feature after mounting criticism from the larger crypto community. The hardware wallet provider also stated that it would open the source code before it releases the update. Key-Recovery Service Delayed The decision was conveyed to wallet users in a letter by Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier. In the letter, Gauthier stated that the company would only launch the new feature after releasing its code to the community. Furthermore, Ledger also scheduled a Twitter Spaces session to discuss the issue with the community and reach a consensus on the way forward. The Twitter Spaces session was joined by over 13,000 users, with the CEO calling it a humbling experience and a lesson in communication. Gauthier stated, “This experience has been very humbling. We miscommunicated on the launch of this product; it was not our intention to take people by surprise. So because of that, we understand the community’s direction and apologize for the miscommunication.” Codebase To Be Open-Source Gauthier also stated that as a response to concerns raised by the community, Ledger would be accelerating plans to open-source its codebase, starting with the core components of its operating system and Ledger Recover. Additionally, Ledger Recover will not be released until this is completed. “We have made the decision to accelerate the open-sourcing roadmap! We will include as much of the Ledger operating system as possible, starting with core components of the OS, and Ledger Recover, which won’t be released until this work is complete. Furthermore, we will open-source the Ledger Recover protocol, enabling the community to have as much choice as possible over your self-custody, in addition to the service being fully optional. This roadmap will be shared and updated by our CTO and engineering team.” The Chief Technology Officer at Ledger, Charles Guillemet, revealed that over the next few days, the company would make a white paper on the Recover Protocol public, along with technical blog posts. These would explain the principles governing Recover and give a detailed explanation of how the process works. Guillemet stated, “It’s going to be very easy and clear for every single cryptography and security expert to have a look at the protocol to get more guarantees and understand how it works.” He also added that developers could build their own backup provider for the seed phrase shards rather than using the ones provided by Ledger. “This has always been something important for Ledger, but this recent event showed how important it is for the community, and this is why we decided to prioritize this open-sourcing process.” Gauthier also stressed that offering key recovery services is critical to onboarding new users for whom self-custody may be difficult. “The majority of users in crypto today either don’t own their private keys and/or are putting their private keys at risk using less secure forms of self-custody and hard-to-use forms of storing and securing their seed phrase.” Ledger’s PR Nightmare Ledger announced its Ledger Recover service last week, allowing users to store encrypted backups of their seed phrases with third-party custodians. This would enable Ledger users to restore their private keys even if they lost their seed phrases. The feature was announced as an opt-in feature and would require a KYC (Know Your Customer) verification. However, if Ledger was expecting a supportive reaction, it got quite the opposite. Almost immediately after the announcement, Ledger came under heavy criticism from the crypto community. The main point of criticism was sharing seed phrases with third parties. Multiple users posted angry reactions on social media, stating that they felt betrayed by Ledger. Ledger had previously stated that the wallet’s private keys would never leave the device. Critics also pointed out the potential threats that could arise from such an arrangement, such as the hack of custodians entrusted with the private keys, data leaks from KYC service providers, and user data being compromised. Other community members also pointed out that the code for Ledger’s Recover feature is not open-source, meaning there is no way to audit and test the feature’s safety. Unlike its competitors, Ledger does not publish all its code. Instead, its products are tested by a team of select security researchers. Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

In a May 23 Twitter Space, Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier said the past week has been a “humbling experience.”

“You’re saying this is not what customers want. Actually, this is what future customers want,” said Ledeger CEO Pascal Gauthier.

Paris, France, April 19th, 2023, ChainwireSwaap Labs, the company building Swaap, has successfully secured over $4.5 million in seed funding. Swaap builds the Next-Generation Market Making Protocol that leverages a combination of oracles and dynamic spread for sustainable yields and reduced trading costs. Its unique approach aims to offer liquidity providers (LPs) passive and profitable market-making strategies, addressing the critical issue of impermanent loss, prevalent in DeFi.Launched in July 2022 on Polygon, Swaap v1 has already proven that profitable market-making on-chain is possible. Its WBTC / WETH / USDC pool, powered by Chainlink price feeds, has recorded less than 0.1% of impermanent loss.Swaap v2 is set to revolutionize the DeFi landscape with its new enhancements and features, further improving v1. It employs the most advanced market-making models in DeFi, built by leveraging the AMM (automated market maker) simulator developed in collaboration with the Louis Bachelier Institute, a leading Math Research Institute.Swaap v2 further boasts innovative architecture that delivers a significant improvement in data latency, elevating the platform's overall performance. Additionally, this new architecture empowers users with access to a diverse range of tokens, including yield-bearing options, further expanding the platform's capabilities and solidifying Swaap v2 as a frontrunner in the DeFi space.The seed funding round was led by Signature Ventures with participation from high-profile investors including New Form Capital, C² Ventures, Kima Ventures, Pareto Ventures, Entrepreneur First(where Swaap's co-founders met), and renowned business angels like Julien Bouteloup (Stake Capital), Pascal Gauthier(Ledger CEO), Richard Ma (Quantstamp CEO), Tegan Kline (The Graph), Meltem Demirors (Coinshares CSO), Frederic Montagnon (Arianee Co-Founder), and Thibaud Elzière (eFounders CEO).Cyrille Pastour, the co-founder of Swaap Labs, said, "We are thrilled to have the support of our investors as we work to democratize DeFi and create a more efficient environment for Liquidity Providers. This funding will enable us to accelerate the development and release of Swaap v2, which promises to deliver even more value to LPs and traders in the DeFi ecosystem."“We are proud to work with the outstanding team at Swaap Labs and to be a part of their journey. We think Swaap’s Market Maker protocol is a true game-changer for decentralized finance,” said Dr. Georg (Juri) Stricker, Tech Partner at Signature Ventures. “Building upon the progressively more scalable public chain infrastructure as well as more transparent and robust oracle infrastructure, Swaap is setting new standards in DEX efficiencies for liquidity providers and traders. By offering more stable yields and sustainable returns, we believe Swaap is an essential building block in the evolution of DeFi towards a financial system.”Swaap is inviting users to join the waitlist for its upcoming v2 release. To be among the first to access the new platform and enjoy exclusive benefits, visit swaap.finance/waitlist The waitlist is powered by Zealy (previously Crew3) ensuring a seamless and efficient onboarding experience.About SwaapSwaap is transforming the DeFi landscape with its cutting-edge market-making models, improved performance, and access to a wide variety of token options, including yield-bearing assets. Developed in collaboration with the Louis Bachelier Institute using the innovative AMM (automated market maker) simulator, Swaap delivers an enhanced experience for Liquidity Providers. Dive into a new era of on-chain liquidity provision and experience the future of DeFi with Swaap at swaap.finance.For more information visit:Twitter |Discord| WebsiteContactHead of MarketingDavid [email protected]

The attack that targeted the DeFi lending platform, Sentiment Protocol, has been identified as a re-entrancy attack. Main Focus On Fund Recovery On April 4, the Sentiment team made a statement on Twitter that the protocol had likely been hacked and that they were looking into the matter. The team tweeted, “At approximately 06:00:00 PM +UTC The Sentiment team became aware of abnormal borrowing activity which has now been declared as a malicious exploit.” According to the Twitter thread, the team had paused the Sentiment main contract and restricted functionality to only process withdrawals in order to mitigate the loss of further funds. They also employed third-party security auditors to fix the vulnerability immediately, allowing all account holders to repay debts and unwind their positions. Finally, the team also announced that Sentiment is working closely with law enforcement and close contributors to pinpoint the hacker’s identity. However, the main objective moving forward would be to recover the stolen user funds. Therefore, a message was addressed to the hacker, offering a 10% bounty in exchange for the return of the rest of the funds. Understanding The Vulnerability Beyond the above information, the team has not divulged any further details of the hack. However, as is the case with security threats on other DeFi platforms, community members have rushed in to unravel the root of the vulnerability. According to one such community member, Pascal Marco Caversaccio, the blockchain records revealed a re-entrancy hack. This means the vulnerability happened when an external contract repeatedly targeted a compromised Sentiment contract before the latter’s status could be updated. Another developer in the community suggested that the hacker specifically called a self-destruct function within a Sentiment smart contract. The Twitter account Spreek revealed that around $500,000 to $1 million of funds were stolen from the platform via the Arbitrum blockchain on which the DeFi protocol operates. DeFi Under Attack DeFi platforms have been riddled with similar hacks, where attackers have targeted a vulnerability in the code to exploit the platform and siphon off user funds. The Euler Finance drama has been the most noteworthy recently, where the protocol lost around $200 million worth of assets. However, the DeFi protocol has been successful in recovering a part of the stolen funds, worth around $31 million, through negotiations with the exploiter. As a result, the Euler team even declared that it would not be attempting to pursue the identity of the hacker. A similar approach to fund recovery could also prove to be successful for the Sentiment Protocol team. Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Crypto hardware company Ledger has secured €100 million ($109 million) funding in its latest funding round at the $1.4 billion valuation for the company. Successful Closure Of Series C Extension Hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger has conducted late-stage funding in its Series C round to raise over $100 million. The company had maintained its $1.4 billion valuation from its last funding round in June 2021, when it raised around $380 million. According to reports, the company will conduct two more rounds in 2023. On March 30th, the team announced the successful closure of its Series C extension fundraising, which will be used to optimize and expand its wallet production. The team tweeted, “Ledger is proud to announce our Series C extension fundraising round. We continue our mission of bringing ease-of-use and uncompromised security to your digital value.” Some of the leading institutional investors contributing to this funding are Morgan Creek, Cité Gestion SPV, Digital Finance Group, VaynerFund, True Global Ventures, and 10T. Ledger Thriving Amidst Market Troubles The company is behind the uber-popular hardware wallets like the Nano S and Nano X. Despite regulatory concerns plaguing the industry, the company’s continued success indicates that digital security is still a profitable niche in the market. The crypto-security firm had previously launched the Ledger Stax hardware wallet in the middle of the FTX controversy with much success. Today, Ledger hardware wallets protect 20% of all the cryptocurrency in the world. New Generation Of Hardware In an accompanying blog post published by the company, CEO and Chairman Pascal Gauthier wrote about Ledger’s plan forward. “Within the next five to ten years, my conviction is that the rise of the Internet of Value will reshape how billions of people own and manage their assets, redefining how we interact with the Internet, the role of intermediaries, the global economy, and every industry.” He talks about introducing a new generation of hardware that would encompass even smartphones and laptops. Gauthier indicated that the company would be using the funds from the latest round to enhance the Ledger software experience. He plans to integrate more cryptocurrencies, blockchains, services, and features into Ledger Live. CEO’s Plans For Ledger Enterprise Gauthier also addresses the business side of affairs. The company’s B2B division, Ledger Enterprise, will be working on empowering more corporations to use the proper governance and security frameworks in their digital initiatives. He writes, “As the Internet of Value gradually goes mainstream, our Ledger devices will allow you to manage an ever-expanding range of tokenized assets, including your value, identity, data, stocks, and much more, enabling you to connect with complete ownership.” Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.