Pascal Gauthier (파스칼 고티에), chief executive of cryptocurrency hardware wallet company Ledger, said hardware wallet security cannot be addressed through user caution alone.

On Aug. 17 local time, blockchain outlet U.Today reported that Gauthier said the crypto industry should not handle security by increasing users’ responsibility and that “total safety” does not exist in reality.

Gauthier said hardware wallet makers should design systems that can maintain security even when users make mistakes. He cited a series of incidents recently revealed in the hardware wallet industry as examples of the problem. On the Coldcard incident, Gauthier said user discipline alone cannot replace flawed design.

CoinKite warned on July 30 that some bitcoin wallets created on its Coldcard devices could be vulnerable due to an entropy problem in the seed-generation process. The company said affected seeds should be treated as already leaked. Losses from the issue had exceeded 1,000 BTC by July 31.

Galaxy Research said on Aug. 4 it confirmed 1,596 BTC stolen from 7,300 addresses. Gauthier said such cases show it is hard to prevent security problems by only demanding greater caution from users. Because hardware wallets are a core tool for self-custody, he said they need structures that can withstand mistakes from the design stage.

The controversy was not limited to Coldcard. Trezor disclosed on Aug. 13 that a breach at a third-party order fulfilment company exposed customer data of 13,689 people in seven countries. It differs from key-management issues of the wallet itself, but it was seen as an incident that could shake trust across the broader hardware wallet ecosystem.

Gauthier said for self-custody to spread widely, it should not be premised on ordinary users having to understand every possible technical failure. He said if a system requires ordinary users to know every failure mode, self-custody will inevitably remain limited in scope.

He also drew a line against accepting manufacturers’ safety claims as they are. Gauthier wrote, "No one’s design, including our products, should be accepted based on words alone." He said security should be seen not as a one-time finished product but as a process of ongoing testing and improvement.

The remarks also tie into how the hardware wallet industry will restore trust after a recent run of incidents. Even if demand for self-custody holds, manufacturers now face the task of reviewing product design and supply-chain management, as well as post-incident notice systems. The focus of the security race is ultimately shifting from adding features to how well structures can withstand mistakes and defects.