- Ledger unveils new executive role.
- The firm's chief human agency officer will ensure the use of AI does not come at the cost of individual control.
- Ledger will also create a so-called Proof of Human system to separate AI agents from humans.
Crypto hardware wallet firm Ledger has got a new position in its C-suite: chief human agency officer.
The role has been assigned to the firm’s chief experience officer Ian Rogers, and will help it deal with the growing headaches of operating in a world that's increasingly relying on so-called AI agents.
AI agents, autonomous software programmes designed to achieve specific goals without constant human oversight, sit at the bleeding edge of the booming sector. While proponents say agents promise huge efficiency gains across multiple industries — including crypto — they can be unreliable.
Rogers will lead Ledger’s artificial intelligence initiatives and ensure that the use of AI agents does not come at the cost of individual control.
“The biggest threats come from AI systems being granted too much access to sensitive credentials, wallets, and financial decision-making without human oversight,” Rogers told DL News.
“These agents are only growing in number and can act incredibly fast, which is great until something goes wrong. If they’re not tightly permissioned and authenticated, attackers can hijack them or trick them into doing the wrong thing.”
Ledger’s announcement, which coincides with the release of its new AI security roadmap, comes as the technology redefines how crypto firms approach their security and that of their users.
Traders are increasingly relying on agents to execute transactions on their behalf — sometimes with unintended consequences.
At the same time, AI is making crypto hacking cheaper, easier, and faster, allowing attackers to overwhelm defenders and putting millions of dollars at risk.
Ledger’s AI roadmap
Roger’s first focus in his new position is defining how AI agents operate and what they can do.
In its AI roadmap, Ledger says it will create systems to connect the identities of agents to hardware like Ledger’s wallets. This will let users and observers know where an agent came from and who controls it.
Later in the year, Ledger plans to introduce a so-called “human-in-the-loop” feature where agents propose actions for users to review. Users will be able to set boundaries, such as spending limits or specific smart contract permissions, for the agents they task with making transactions on their behalf.
These updates will culminate in the final three months of the year with the development of Proof of Human, another new system which is designed to combat bot-spam and multi-accounting. The goal is to help prove a unique individual is behind a given agent interaction, not just another agent.
Ledger is not the first crypto firm to attempt to create such a system.
World, a crypto firm backed by OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman, has since 2019 worked on a system that uses biometric data from scans of users’ irises to prove they’re unique humans.
The firm has been criticised for its data collection practices, which involve offering potential users valuable WLD tokens for signing up to have their irises scanned.
Several regulators worldwide have banned World from collecting biometric data, while several more have launched investigations into Tools for Humanity, the firm behind the project.
Rogers said Ledger’s Proof of Human is hardware-based and doesn’t rely on biometric data or social reputation like World’s system.
“It links human attestation to the secure element inside a Ledger device,” Rogers said. “Each attestation confirms that a unique, verified individual is authorising or controlling an agent’s actions, without exposing personal data.”
“We’re not trying to prove the identity of the whole world,” he said.
Tim Craig is DL News’ Edinburgh-based DeFi Correspondent. Reach out with tips at tim@dlnews.com.
