For Bitcoin withdrawals and deposits to their clients’ non-custodial wallets, Swiss financial crypto intermediaries require confirmation of ownership of an external wallet’s address. The Address Ownership Proof Protocol, or AOPP, is the automated process used for this.
Last week, “The Trezor hardware wallet” released an AOPP signing upgrade, letting users generate signatures that follow the AOPP standard required in specific countries. Trezor confirmed on January 28 that this protocol will be removed in the upcoming Trezor Suite version after careful consideration of recent criticism. Recent feedback relates to Reddit and Twitter users who were worried that Trezor’s usage of AOPP signified support for further regulation and a contempt for potential privacy loss.
Trezor confessed in a blog post that it “underestimated how this functionality would be regarded,” but that the business “welcomes public scrutiny.” The fact that it listened to its consumers and responded so quickly underscores the importance of social media sentiment. The hardware wallet company stated that it was in violation of the AOPP standards, including the data breach risks connected with adopting a demanding verification process such as Know Your Customer, or KYC, to acquire Bitcoin.
While the AOPP protocol may not have a direct or negative influence on users of non-custodial wallets, decentralisation and freedom are important fundamentals for the crypto community that values privacy. The biggest issue is that implementing AOPP will create a precedent for increasing government involvement and monitoring.
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