France: Ledger wants to help MicroStrategy company to secure its 38,000 bitcoins
Ledger offers to help MicroStrategy to secure its 38,000 Bitcoin (BTC).
Ledger Vault provides the technological infrastructure for entities wishing to store cryptocurrency.
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Ledger offers assistance to MircoStrategy
The French manufacturer of cryptocurrency storage equipment is best known for its hardware wallets for individuals. However, the firm also offers a solution for companies and institutions wishing to store and secure cryptocurrency.
As a reminder, MicroStrategy is a company listed on the Nasdaq which has bought over 38,000 BTC in the past two months. This is the equivalent of $ 425 million in Bitcoin Code that has been integrated into the balance sheet of this company of 3,000 employees.
More recently, the Square company bought 4,700 BTC and even released a document detailing the process of the transaction. We can learn that the company founded by Jack Dorsey has developed an in-house open source framework called SubZero to secure its bitcoins.
How to secure such an amount of BTC?
Jean-Michel Pailhon, Vice President of Product at Ledger, gave more details on securing such a large amount of bitcoins.
He said one of the first steps is deciding how many people are involved in authorizing transactions; a typical configuration requires 2 out of 3 signatures. For example, the CEO, CFO and a lawyer hold part of the signature. All private keys are stored on a Harware Security Modules (HSM). This tool has already been used for decades to secure data.
In addition, parts of their private keys may be stored in multiple physical safes .
Thus, if an executive of the company wishes to initiate a transaction then this one connects to Ledger Vault and enters the desired transaction. Then a notification is sent to the three signatories. To approve it, they must connect their Ledger Blue physical wallet to their computer.
Jean-Michel Pailhon clarified that Ledger provides the custody technology and takes care of the HSM infrastructure, the client is the sole owner of its assets.
MicroStrategy has publicly acknowledged the risks associated with holding several thousand BTCs:
Although we hold the majority of our bitcoin with regulated depositories, a security breach or cyber attack can result in the partial or total loss of our assets.