Pascal Gauthier, the CEO of Ledger, addressed the audience at Blockchain Life 2023, delving into the puzzling discrepancy between the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies and the comparatively low usage of hardware wallets, such as Ledger’s. Despite the growing interest in crypto, Ledger’s user base stands at 5 million, a mere 1% of the market.
Self-Custody’s Significance
Gauthier emphasized the importance of self-custody in the crypto space and expressed concern over the current centralized market, revealing that most of the 500 million crypto users are on exchanges rather than utilizing self-custody solutions. He urged the audience to consider the fundamental purpose of crypto – to be a decentralized and self-custodial peer-to-peer payment network.
Market Insights
Breaking down the numbers, Gauthier highlighted that Ledger protects 20% of all cryptocurrencies and 35% of all NFTs, serving around 5 million customers. However, he acknowledged the difficulty in accurately gauging user numbers due to the challenges of conducting business intelligence on blockchain.
Centralization Challenges
The Ledger CEO addressed the need for the industry to tackle the centralization issue and promote self-custody, stressing that the forthcoming influx of users, potentially driven by the rise of ETFs, poses a significant challenge. He urged the industry to solve the user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) problems associated with self-custody.
Vision for the Future
The talk shifted towards Ledger’s vision for the future, emphasizing a shift from technology-centric to product and experience-focused solutions. Gauthier argued that the industry, largely shaped by developers, needs to prioritize designing products and experiences that make technology subordinate. He pointed out that current technologies like account abstraction and MPC are important but stressed that they are not products.
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Ledger’s Efforts
Gauthier shared Ledger’s efforts in this direction, offering Ledger.com as a platform to purchase self-custodial devices. He discussed the need for a radical change in UX/UI, particularly in the on-boarding phase. He cited the challenge of convincing users to embrace self-custody, attributing it to trust issues related to handling 24 words.
Addressing Challenges
The Ledger CEO hinted at Ledger’s new offering, Ledger Recover, as a solution to the 24 words problem. He acknowledged that the industry needs to collectively address this challenge to facilitate the on-boarding of millions of users into self-custody.
In conclusion, Gauthier stressed the importance of making self-custody a seamless part of users’ everyday lives, envisioning a future where securing digital assets is intuitive, easy, and integral to users’ digital experiences. As the industry anticipates potential mass adoption with the advent of ETFs, addressing UX/UI challenges and building trust in self-custody remain key priorities for Ledger and the crypto community at large.
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