Hardware wallets revisited

Earlier this year one of the most popular hardware wallet makers, Ledger, created a whirlwind of controversy through a significant marketing gaff which lead a lot of owners running for the exits.

To recap, Ledger is rolling out a new ‘opt in recovery service’ which adds the ability to backup your private key to remote services, so if you ever lose your key you could use this restore service to regain access your wallet. People freaked out because they thought that it was impossible for Ledger or anyone to access or extract a users private key from their device through any means.

My questions:

* Isn’t it possible for any hardware wallet with a updatable firmware to push an update with the ability to extract your key?

* Are air-gapped or QR code only wallets safer?

* What is the safest hardware wallet one can purchase?

* A. Safest wallet Bitcoin only

* B. Safest wallet with mutli-coin support which one can access DeFi easily

Thoughts:

* Using any vendors hardware wallet requires a degree of trust in the company. (Yes, even if it’s 100%* open source code)

* A 100% open source hardware wallet with a non-upgradable firmware wouldn’t be safer. (e.g. if a vulnerability is found in the firmware the wallet would become vulnerable and assets would need to be moved ASAP)

Are there any technically knowledgable cryptographers available to weigh in on this?