The new built-in multisig signature feature from Ledger received a mixed reaction. Many developers and longtime users welcomed the very fact of the feature’s appearance, but were dissatisfied with the company’s decision to charge a fee for each transaction.
Multisig was part of Thursday’s presentation — coinciding with the release of the Nano Gen5 device and the new Ledger Wallet app, which replaces Ledger Live. This is the company’s first proprietary coordination service: now transaction confirmations by multiple users can be carried out through Ledger’s internal infrastructure, without third-party tools like Specter or Sparrow.
However, representatives of the developer and security community sharply criticized Ledger for the high cost of operations. For regular transfers, a fixed fee of $10 is set, and for transactions with ERC-20 tokens — 0.05% of the amount, not counting standard network fees.
A security researcher and developer under the pseudonym pcaversaccio, one of the key participants in the SEAL-911 initiative, criticized the new Ledger model, stating that it turns multisig users into a source of profit for the company. In his post on X, he called this a ‘cash cow’ approach, which contradicts the cypherpunk ideology on which Ledger’s philosophy was originally built.
A similar position was expressed by developer Sarnavo from the Team1 project in the Avalanche ecosystem. He noted that the clear signing feature, viewing readable data before signing, does indeed improve security. However, according to him, now this trust feature has simply been ‘put behind a paywall.’
He also reminded that the Ledger interface remains closed, meaning users cannot verify exactly how data is processed during signing. In addition, the signature coordination mechanism underlying the service itself is not publicly disclosed, which raises additional questions about transparency.
‘Security should not be monetized with every transaction,’ the developer added.
Another reason for dissatisfaction is the lack of support for the new multisig feature on the Nano S model, which for a long time was Ledger’s flagship and remains the company’s most popular wallet. Millions of users still rely on this device, which was positioned as an affordable way to start the path to self-custody of assets.
However, due to limited memory capacity, the Nano S does not support clear signing and the new signature coordination mechanism from Ledger. Many longtime users feel forgotten. As pcaversaccio put it, owners of the Nano S have now ‘essentially just been cut off.’
