Ledger's Ian Rogers launches Nano Gen 5 at $179 and says 20% of all crypto is protected by Ledger devices

Cursor, like people really did build serious businesses off of those. Anyway, we can talk about that more later. For now, we have Ian Rogers from Ledger in the Reream wedding room. Let's bring him into the TV Ultra Jam. How are you doing having him? Welcome. I'm good. How are you guys at night here in Paris?

Oh, thank you so much. You're looking uh looking quite sharp in that jacket, too. You look great. You know, I was thinking I was like, "Wow, I well, I just came from we've had a big day today and there's a party happening at the Ledger offices, and I just came from that.

So, this is what I was wearing, and I'm like, wait, I'm in my living room. Should I put my pajamas on? what's what's appropriate here. But, you know, you guys are always dressed sharp, so I thought, you know what? I'll just keep the I'll just keep the jacket on.

Well, you know, even though it feels a little out of place in my living room, I got to be honest. I did not think that this week we'd be talking to someone in Paris about security. Tell us what Ledger does. How are you going to say, are we going to store my valuables reliably? Not focus on royal jewels, unfortunately.

Otherwise, we may not have. By the way, by the way, I had I had coffee uh at at Ledger with a number two from the Louve last Tuesday morning was asking him like, you know, you know, what's it like to tell me about the job?

And God, it's, you know, pretty pretty mellow, long-term, we think long-term horizons, these sort of things. Wow, that that job got got a lot more interesting. Uh it did. It did over the weekend. But anyway, uh yeah. Uh how how do you introduce the company now? Give us the general update.

So, Ledger's been around for um 11 years, which is a very long time in in the world of crypto, but really always doing the same thing.

Um, you know, it started with this this simple idea that we have these amazing devices, phones and computers, but they were meant to share information, not protect value, you know, fundamentally.

And if we're going to have digital value in our lives, and if especially if kind of the main invention of this new digital value, Bitcoin, etc. , is permissionless money. Well, then you have self- custody and if self- custody then security is paramount.

So let's let's you know use secure element chips to protect private keys. Um and that you know that started with with really one purpose Bitcoin but you know then we've had much more cryptocurrency but actually the fact is you can use that same device to to secure anything.

So pass keys, identity, um you know we live increasingly digital lives and proof is increasingly important um and therefore security. So the other interesting thing about the way it if you think about it the technology and where it comes from it's this smart card technology.

So it's the same chip that's in your credit card or your passport but where your credit card protects the secrets of the bank and your passport protects the secrets of the government right from you because you have it in your possession. You're not supposed to hack it.

Um, this is using that same technology to um to protect the secrets of the user or of the consumer. Um, which is pretty powerful. Um, especially I mean I I was listening to to your interview about OpenAI going into a world of agentic AI. We will need to prove our humanness.

It would be nice if we could own our own preferences and then, you know, federate them to the apps that we use. And I'm not sure I want to shove my credit card into that agent. I'd rather it asked me, you know, before it booked the flight, you know, like here's the info.

Do you would you like to verify this transaction on a secure screen? Yes, I would. Thank you. You know, so it's um it's that. And today we we announced a new a new product, but that's what we've been doing for a few years now. Yeah. What's what's the different about the new product?

I feel like ledgers like it feels like something where it's like great idea solved. Uh, and so I'm interested to know what's happening with like with the iteration cycle. Yeah. So, we have this product that people are very familiar with, the Ledger Nano, which is it's just like the swivel, it folds out.

You you've you've seen it. Um, which you know, and if if when it's kind of the Air Jordan of of crypto, like if somebody needs a physical representation of crypto, they they include a picture of the of the ledger in it. But with with Tony Fidel, who is, you know, the the the founder of the the podf father.

He created the iPod and co-invented the iPhone and founded Nest. Um, I mean, you guys will appreciate this. When I started this job, I told Tony, I said, "Yeah, I'm going to run the consumer business for Ledger. " And he said, "There is no consumer business. That business is business to geek.

You know, your job is to make a consumer business. " Right? And so, um, we we started making these secure touchscreen devices. So he designed one that's beautiful. It's called Ledger Stacks. It's the world's first curved e- in display. Um so where a Kindle screen is silicon on glass.

This is an organic substrate on plastic and you get this this like 5mm curve and you know it's Tony. He he can envision the the circuit board and and the billboard at the same time.

Um, but that that screen first ever and first product to have an organic TFT took longer than we thought and the screen ended up costing more than we thought and then the product is in market for a higher price than we had hoped for.

So we we built a um that was that's that retails at 399 and then we built another one that's a a beautiful device called Ledger Flex steel case um really nice e- in screen but that clocked in at $2. 49 49.

And what we really wanted to do was to do this secure touchscreen but at the at the price of a Nano X which is which is you know one of our most popular models of all time. So this is the one that we introduced today. This is this is the Ledger. This this is the uh Nano Gen 5. Um and this is on sale today for 179.

Um so here you can see what the you know what the box looks like. M um and that so that's what we that's what we did today.

The other thing we did today is announced a bunch of features in the software because really I mean you know the point kind of to the point you were making earlier it's not about hardware it's about what can you do with it you know and and you know this these these devices they started as one thing this long-term investment asset you know Bitcoin that was what it was for but now you it's all assets because it's you know tokeno tokenized you know rwas tokenized stocks um it's also So, you know, a a yieldbearing savings account with stable coins these days.

And um it's a spending account as well because we have a a credit card that's a well, it's actually a a debit card, a crypto debit card that pays Bitcoin rewards. So, it's so much more. You know, you can do we support 10,000 tokens, you know, 100% of the top 100 um tokens.

So, it's really u you know, it's a it's it's a financial tool in your in your in your pocket and a secure one, which is which your phone is not. talk a little bit more.

Uh yeah, I love I love how many different like really thinking about the full suite and just building these like purpose-built devices for different use cases.

talk about I guess more you mentioned earlier if you have agents operating in the world on your behalf specifically online like how how you guys are thinking and kind of even timeline there because I think uh this is top of mind for a lot of people that are realizing like okay I'm going to have a browser that's not just like a window into the web and a way for me to enter into forms but it'll be acting on my behalf and if it's going to be like moving money or doing anything else or or submitting getting my information somewhere like I want to have more you know real control over that.

So I guess wanted to kind of hear more about how you guys are thinking about that opportunity in the context of ledgers business. Yeah.

I mean I I guess the way I think about this I think about it all in context right what what was the internet really two computers could talk to each other we get this revolution of information. What is um blockchain? Well blockchain is the ability to um to issue and trade really right.

So I can and I can I can we talk about scarcity but it's really about issuance and and trading you know the kind of what's the the core building block and then you know with with AI we have you know super intelligence and ultimately things that we can delegate tasks to that will act on our behalf but if they're going to act on our behalf then they have to represent us out there right um and also when we're interacting with other people we need to know who it is we're interacting with um and you know so also I think those those things need to you know, machine readable.

So, interestingly, in both cases, you're talking about tokens, right?

We're talk we talk about eating tokens in the case of AI and we talk about issuing tokens um in the case of in the case of crypto, but what we're really talk what we mean when we say those things is we're talking about things that are machine readable and machine translatable.

Um, so I think that, you know, I think proof is actually a really important word to consider here. Um, you know, how do you know this is me talking? How do you know these are the words that are coming out of this microphone? I think proof is going to become increasingly important.

We already have it and a lot of a lot of companies are like trying to take this challenge head on. You know, Reddit uh is trying to to to know that someone's not a bot on the other side. Um you know, dating sites, uh Match. com has a big effort to try to know that someone's So, how exactly are you doing that?

And um you know, and who are you trusting? So, I think trust brokers will become pretty important in the future. Um, you know, like if I had I I could um if I said like, "Ah, yeah, here's a here's a a Warhol print. " And you'd be like, "Okay, well, maybe it is.

" You know, but if Christiey's said it's a Warhol, you'd be like, "Yeah, it probably is. They probably did the work. " And that that's the same thing that we have in our lives with things like driver's licenses. You know, it's um it's difficult to get a driver's license.

It's easy to read one, you know, and I think we'll have we'll have a lot of those kinds of things where there's a trust broker. that trust broker will issue a token that says, you know, not only am I a human, but I'm a unique human.

This this token matches, you know, matches a passport, one passport, not multiple passports. And then, you know, and then a machine readable way in a machine readable way, you know, we'll be able to kind of do a handshake where it's like, oh yeah, that's a real person.

And you could use that in, you know, any context, Twitter, YouTube, um, or X, YouTube, etc. , right? And so I I think that these kinds of you know this is this is like the super basic version. You know the more the only slightly more complex version is that agent that they were talking about earlier in my browser.

You know it's going to go book me a flight to Miami. Well how have I given it my Delta login? Did I give it my credit card information? Like you know right now we live in this world where kind of our identity is locked behind all of these login password combinations across thousands of websites.

Um there's no need for that. That can all of that data could be owned by the individual just like we own you know our passport, our driver's license and and other things and then it's federated to those applications as needed. It's really a much it's it's more scalable. It's more secure.

It's a It's a much better and and it's less trust, you know. I think we're already, you know, I mean, I I haven't installed the OpenAI browser yet, and I'm like, "Wow, do I really They've already got so much. " I have an idea. I have an idea. Bring it. A a giant gong that you can store Bitcoin. What about that?

What about that? A massive gong that you keep in your vault in your basement and you can store Bitcoin on it. You can smash it every time you want You could actually probably just sneak a little Ledger Nano up in the gong and that would work fine. But I want I was holding back. I was ready to tell you guys.

I was ready to tell. Yeah. Give us some numbers. What you got? I was going to say approximately 20% of all crypto is protected by Ledger devices. I thought that was Yes. I was like, what can I give you that's worthy of a gong? And uh that's insane. Fantastic. You guys probably Yeah, you got two two hits.

Uh we're we're running over time. Last last thing I wanted to ask, how what's the Parisian crypto scene like? It sounds cool and you seem really cool, but uh but what what's what's it like on the ground? Thanks. I have to say the ledger party tonight was crazy.

I barely from there because there were just people in the street, you know, going, "Can I get in? " Um no, it's it really it's interesting here. I moved here 10 years ago.

I moved here 10 years ago to work for LVMH and a lot I mean I really you know I moved to LA in '95 and it felt you know like it was a million miles away from Silicon Valley at that time. You know what I mean?

But then over time it it kind of grew into something that you know we we had a MySpace, we had a Snapchat, we had a you know like it LA kind of came into its own and I you feel the same thing here over 10 years you know like it's uh it's still France and France is not America when it comes to startups that's for sure.

Um, but they've they've really I mean it's it's uh there's so much going on here. It's really fun. Get over here. Let's do this. We we you know we'll give you the we'll give you the proper tool. I refuse. I refuse. I'm not I'm not leaving won't leave our borders. But I I will I'll take you up on that. Okay. Come. Yeah.

Come on over anytime. Does John have a passport? He does. Unfortunately, yes. Yeah, he does. But he Otherwise, I could say no to every international invitation. You go, John, come over here. We got we got seas and lakes and mountains. He's like, "We got Season Lakes and Mountains over here. " Yeah. Yeah.

Do they got the Indianapolis 500 over there? Do they got the Kentucky Derby over there? No. I am, by the way, I am I am from Indiana. And uh and and and you can and this I'll give you a fun fact. Kid Rock is on record saying the only reason I would go to France is to visit Ian. So maybe John, you come. Oh, that's lore.

That's deep lore. That's deep lore. Amazing. Ian, great to meet you. Uh, congrats to the whole team on on the launch and uh, thank you for having us. Securing 20% of all digital assets. Yes. Thank you for your service.