Why Self-Custody Shouldn’t Be Complicated: Trezor’s Vision With Sebastien Gilquin

Self-custody remains a foundational value in the crypto sector. Growing concerns about centralization and evolving regulations have increased interest in secure, user-friendly solutions. Sebastien Gilquin, Head of Business Development and Partnerships at Trezor, the original creator of hardware wallets, brings deep insight into how their company drives adoption beyond early crypto enthusiasts.

BeInCrypto interviewed Sebastien to explore the philosophy powering Trezor, its education-focused strategies, regulatory approach, and vision for the future of self-custody at a time of rapid industry change. Sebastien spoke about Trezor’s efforts to balance simplicity and functionality, adapt to user needs, and stay true to core principles despite market and regulatory pressures.

Expanding the Reach of Self-Custody and Trezor’s Mission

Trezor is the company that created hardware wallets. So we are the first ones to have created hardware wallets and invented this concept. I think the focus has been, for instance, that we want to give a more approachable product for self-custody. I think we have a lot of initiatives around this, something called Trezor Academy, mainly focusing on Africa these days, where we go and educate people over there on self-custody.

We’re also looking into Trezor experts. We had some present at our booth during the conference. They are there to support newcomers who are beginning their self-custody journey and people who are more advanced and looking to explore more advanced features.

We want to help people own their keys and assets while keeping simplicity in self-custody amazing.

Balancing Minimalism and Functionality in Wallet Design

I think it’s also linked to how we could get more early adopters to the product. I mean, we try to keep everything open source, so transparent, and accessible to everybody, to give them the ability to see what the product has to offer and build on top of the hardware itself.

There’s also the idea of getting products that give access to crypto. So newcomers, and the new adopters on ramps, is a good product that explains that. So you could just buy with Fiat and your first crypto to Trezor, and we have this product available in our Trezor suite, software interacting with the hardware.

Our main idea here is to always prioritize the needs of the users, and that’s how we kind of also explore new initiatives, new features that we want to add to our products.

Partnership Strategies: User Needs and Market Trends

So we actually always prioritize the needs of our users, so we hear and understand what the users are actually looking for, what they would like to see within the wallet, and to an extent, the overall community. I think, from my personal perspective and on the roadmap, I think that aligned with self-custody defi is something that we will want to explore a bit further, obviously new chains, but it’s also, again, based on the demand and the needs that our users have.

I think we also want to stay transparent, and that’s also why we hear what our users want. But we also have to kind of understand what the market is offering and what a new trend. So we also listen to the market overall and see which direction we’ll take. But stay tuned. We have some new things coming up soon. And we’re excited about that.

Regulatory Pressure, Privacy, and Core Values

I think Trezor’s mindset has always been around self-custody as a human right, so we have to keep that in mind. What we try to do with non-custody is to keep that privacy and transparency for our users, the overall community, and potential newcomers.

So it’s kind of linked again to the previous question partners have into, we had those integrated within the product that, if needed, are compliant with any new regulatory frameworks that exist out there. We have features such as the on and off ramps, which allow newcomers to buy crypto within the wallet.

Integrations and Technical Evolution: Identity, MPC, and Account Abstraction

You have the traditional method, which exists withTrezor Keep metal, which is the basic seed phrase that you store physically. So that’s kind of a procedure that has existed for a while. Now, I think we’ve, we’ve launched, a new standard, which is called SLIP 39 which is very interesting approach to things, which simplifies the concept of seed phrase, and way to shard the phrase and facilitate recovery while keeping self custody within multiple devices.

Personal Reflections and the Future of Self-Custody

So, on a personal level, I think self-custody is the beginning of freedom beyond human rights, and that’s something we want to continue pursuing, regardless of all the changes within the industry and all the new regulatory frameworks that exist. I think there are ways to maintain that and keep the core values that the company has always had.