One week following the introduction of the Address Ownership Proof Protocol (AOPP), hardware wallet firm Trezor reportedly pressed undo on the release, because of customer privacy issues. 

Specifically, Since 2019, Swiss financial crypto intermediaries have reportedly made it mandatory for an external wallet’s address to provide proof of ownership, regarding Bitcoin withdrawals and deposits to their customers’ non-custodial wallets.

Address Ownership Proof Protocol (AOPP) reportedly functions as an automated mechanism particularly rolled out to support this process. 

The Trezor hardware wallet reportedly released AOPP signing in the most recent January update, offering users the ability to issue signatures that conform to the AOPP standard where particular jurisdictions require.

On Jan. 28, Trezor reportedly disclosed details of its decision to leave this feature out of the next Trezor Suite update “after careful consideration of recent feedback.”

Said feedbacks were reportedly generated by accounts on Reddit and Twitter, who expressed worries regarding the use of AOPP will mean Trezor is supporting enhanced regulation and a disregard for a potential loss of privacy.

Trezor – via a blog post to offer further clarity to the removal – reportedly shared its admission of the firm “underestimating how this feature would be received”, but is open to the scrutiny of any kind. 

The hardware wallet maker additionally expressed its concrete attitude against the regulations that concern AOPP, nominally the data leak risks connected to a stringent identification process, such as Know Your Customer (KYC), for purchasing Bitcoin. 

“Our sole aim was to make the withdrawal to self-custody easier for users in countries with strict regulation, but we acknowledge that more harm than good could be done in the end if this were viewed as proactive compliance with regulations we do not agree with.”

Different hardware wallets like Sparrow Wallet, Samourai Wallet, and BlueWallet have reportedly also followed suit with the move from Trezor, removing the automated protocol.