American payments startup Uphold partners with Ledger

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American digital payments startup Uphold has partnered with French crypto storage company Ledger to improve its security. Uphold, which offers its users a platform to buy, sell, store and send cryptos, announced the partnership during the ongoing CoinDesk Consensus conference.

Ledger, renowned for its crypto hardware storage solutions, will work with Uphold to better protect its customers’ funds. Through its Ledger Vault arm, the company will provide tools that protect against hacks, a menace for any crypto company. The tools will also provide new user access controls.

According to a report by CoinDesk, Uphold will also implement a new governance model which is meant to eliminate any “single points of failure in the management of customer funds.”

Ledger will only provide the tools, it will not act as a custodian, Demetrios Skalkotos, global head of Ledger Vault, sought to clarify. He added, “We’re trying to provide a technology infrastructure, both software security integrated with secure elements and hardware.”

J.P Theriot, Uphold’s co-founder further revealed to CoinDesk that its clients will most likely not notice any differences with the platform they love. Most of the changes will affect the backend and will remain under the hood, he stated. Uphold has also been searching for the right partner to beef up its security, he revealed. After an exhaustive search, the company settled on Ledger due to its “security- and compliance-first” kind of approach.He explained:

“We’ve been okay so far but we’ve been searching for solutions for custody and after a deep search, we settled on Ledger. They were the right mix for us.”

The ultimate goal for Uphold is to become a more effective banking and payments services provider than the existing banks, Theriot added. Uphold intends to offer its clients more benefits than the banks, all while ensuring that the clients don’t compromise on their security.

“It’s always been our view that security’s been the most important issue with respect to mass adoption with cryptocurrencies and blockchain in general … The only reason people would take a risk of moving their money away from the boring old bank on the corner is if they can derive benefits [from] taking the plunge.”

Despite cold storage options becoming more popular as crypto users seek more secure wallets, Ledger’s sales have dropped in 2019. As we reported recently, the startup could lay off at least 10 percent of its 200 employees as orders stall.