Cryptocurrency hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger has ignited controversy with its competitor Trezor over a blog post comparing the company’s technology.
Ledger published a blog post on Feb. 13 titled “Not All Chips Are Born Equal,” comparing the chips used in cryptocurrency hardware wallets. According to the post, the MCU chips used in competitor Trezor’s hardware wallet do not provide an optimal level of security, and are instead intended for general devices such as microwaves and television remotes.
The post reads,
A generic Microcontroller unit, or MCU in short, is found in lots of different, non-secure devices […] While these chips provide a lot of flexibility for its operations, the hardware is simply not as resistant to physical attacks as other options.
Ledger took issue with Safe Memory chips used in certain hardware wallets, which claim extensive security despite having “never been tested by an unbiased third party security lab.”
Trezor’s co-founder and CEO of SatoshiLabs Marek “Slush” Palatinus responded to Ledger’s blog post in a series of tweets. He accused Ledger of being “dishonest” and not telling the “whole story.”
Ledger is being dishonest as it points out only part of the whole story.
Did you know NDA of SE chip vendors prevent wallet manufacturers to talk about security issues to their customers?
Trezor is using nonNDA chips so we can be fully transparent and act in your best interest. https://t.co/tHBvZVUulL
— ₿ slush (@slush) February 13, 2020
They are manipulative. For example “The security of your crypto assets is highly dependent on the type of chips used.”
No, it is not, you can safely use assets even without SE as we do in @trezor; passphrase can do even better than SE, like offering plausible deniability.
— ₿ slush (@slush) February 13, 2020
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