She entered the news suddenly on Tuesday, when her co -founder, David Balland, and her partner were kidnapped against a ransom request in cryptocurrency., Before being released by GIGN the next day. Ledger is a French start-up specializing in securing these digital financial assets with growing popularity.
Created in 2014, by eight people including David Balland, Ledger provides devices, software and applications in the cryptoactive sector. David Balland left the company in 2021. It is now led by Pascal Gauthier.
Wallet, Bitcoin et blockchain
Ledger is especially recognized for his physical “crypto wallets”. In contrast to digital wallets, these are storage devices of private encryption keys, at the appearance of a USB key or a small tablet, depending on the model, which allow a investor of Access its cryptocurrency funds and manage them.
Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin are digital financial assets that only exist on blockchain, storage and decentralized information technology.
“Secure Element” chips
“The blockchain allows digital assets to be transferred between people who do not know each other,” explains Yves-Michel Le Porcher, an independent blockchain expert. And it is on this blockchain that cryptoactives are stored. To access its assets held on a specific blockchain address, an investor must have a key, called “private key”, which signs each transaction and makes it possible to certify that it is not a fraudulent transaction.
This is how an investor can buy a good in cryptocurrencies or exchange them, the “wallet” bridgeting the owner and his assets on the blockchain. To avoid the physical hacks of their portfolios, for example in the event of electromagnetic sabotage, Ledger uses a “Secure Element” chip, the same kind of chip found in passports and credit cards.
Flagship products from the French start-up, its portfolios are sold between 80 euros and 400 euros. In 2024, Ledger claimed to have sold more than seven million worldwide during his ten years of activity.
Our file on cryptocurrency
“It is a company recognized as very serious and solid in the world,” says Yves-Michel Le Porcher. The company claims to secure “20 % of crypto assets in the world”. Based in Paris and Vierzon, she also has offices in London, New York and Singapore and employs 900 people worldwide. Unlisted, the company has no obligation to publish its financial data. But after a fundraising in 2021, it acquired the status of “unicorn”, its valuation having exceeded one billion euros.
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