Ledger released their first video about the Recovery Key card yesterday. Nothing special here. It's an 8-minute introduction to the tool where they spend the first 3 minutes patting themselves on the shoulders and congratulating themselves on everything they have achieved and done so far.
Ledger Recovery Key: Physical Backup for Your 24 Words | Technical Deep DiveHow well will it hold up if submerged in water or subject to a fire?
It's probably made out of plastic so it's not going to survive a fire. When it comes to water, I guess it depends on how long the card will be in the water. It's surely splash-resistant and could survive being submerged in water for a short period of time (like being dropped in it and taken out). I doubt it will work if it took a lengthier swim.
It's open source! ...except for the part that isn't, which means you can add that lie to the long list of Ledger lies.
Any closed source code means the code isn't open source, because the code contains code that isn't published and thus cannot be verified to be safe.
True, but that's the case with anything in the hardware wallet space that has a secure element chip. Lets not forget that there is no open-source secure element and there probably never will be a
fully open-source SE regardless of what anyone says. The manufacturer's code on the chips is always closed-source. This is just more of what we have already seen or perhaps worst.
But it seems to be a recovery product restricted to Ledger devices, the company's most expensive: Flex and Stax.
It requires NFC connection and that's something the old Nano S (Plus) and Nano X don't have. Stax and Flex do, so they are supported.