Anyone who holds cryptocurrency knows that the most important thing is protecting your waller from loss or theft. We can lose all of our coins forever in a number of ways other than being hacked, and so there are a few steps you can take to prevent this. The Achilles Heel of all private wallets, and even the Ledger Wallet, is that you must keep your master private key somewhere in-case your laptop gets fried, or you lose it etc. This means making a personal choice as to whether you write it down, or store it digitally somewhere.
The security of the Ledger Nano S is impressive within itself. It is tamper proof (more or less), and keeps your private keys within the Ledger at all times. That is a great improvement to storing your public key on a computer right!? Ledger also have a long list of alt coins that are supported, so you can hold all of your alt-coins in one place with a great peace of mind. That is the theory at least, let's see how it worked out from the start with my brand new Ledger Nano S.
I ordered my Ledger on Amazon, with a slight price hike, but seeing as I live very remotely that was my only option. Besides what's a few Pounds when you can have security and peace of mind? The setup process was relatively OK, but I must say that as a seasoned web developer and computer techie I was also not overly impressed with the operating system. The screen is tiny, which is OK but as a 44 year old my eyes are not as good as they use to be. I had to wear some magnifying specs to be sure that I had seen the words correctly. After double checking there was ONE that I had wrong just because that screen and resolution is SO low. So be careful, because Ledger only validates THREE of your private backup key words, so if you get one wrong and didn't realise you are going to be in for a shock when the time comes! I think a slightly larger screen and better resolution wouldn't be too much to ask for a state of the art cryptocurrency wallet!
Once set up, and with my 24 word private key words backed up it was time to plug it in and connect it with the chrome app, there doesn't seem to be a desktop program for this. I plugged it in, and waited but the app didn't want to recognise or find the ledger. I tried changing the USB cable, and tried connecting it many times but it really didn't seem to work. I had to keep reopening the ledger app on my mac, which Google for some reason make it very hard to find. I basically can not find or get to the app without going to the reinstall page and opening it from there. Very strange! I did some Google searches and tried all the options. You need to close all other wallets that you may have open, as they seem to conflict and prevent the ledger from working. That didn't help, nor did any of the solutions that I found both on the Ledger Nano S website and general user posts. In the end I solved the problem by testing it on a windows virtual machine, and it worked straight away. There must be something on my (standard) Mac Book Pro preventing it from launching, but I didn't yet figure out what it is.
So finally I had my Ledger up and running, and via this chrome app i could add more alt coins! I started adding a few and it went quite quickly and painlessly. On the fourth one, however, I got a system message that the Ledger was full, and it couldn't add a fourth one. That was strange! Surely an error!? Back to Google, and the answer revealed itself immediately. YOU CAN ONLY STORE UP TO 4 CRYPTOCURRENCY'S AT A TIME on the ledger! Oops. I didn't do my due diligence, mainly because i would have never imagined that this high tech wizardry would present a huge list of coins, only to be limited to 3! I say three and not four because you need to keep the authentication app on it so that you can send and receive coins. Shit! If this thing was going to be of any use I would need a few of them, and suddenly things are looking less than peachy!
It was at about this point that I realised that I had totally wasted my money. This thing was of almost no use to me. Better I keep my Bitcoin in several private wallets or even with Coinbase or other exchange that are Insured and have two factor authentication to login (careful with GDAX folks as it leaves you logged in indefinitely!). That to my mind is much safer because someone needs to have my phone and my login information in order to do anything. Even then IF they login I will get an email notifying me of the event so I can take action if necessary. The rabbit hole gets deeper though.. If your private Ledger keys are compromised then someone can have access to ALL your coins, without any kind of verification, notification or secondary authentication! If those 24 words get out then its all gone! Compare that to having you alt coins on separate and private wallets, each with their own keys, and even BIP38 Encrypted so EVEN if someone finds your private key they still need a password to see it. It would be MUCH harder and unlikely to have all your wallets broken into in that way.
So, in conclusion I would say that this Ledger would be a great idea IF they can solve the Achilles Heel. Writing your password down on a very obvious piece of card in plain English sounds pretty crazy to me after ALL the technical efforts to secure it on the hardware side. I'm sure one day someone will figure out how to solve this problem, and so for now I present you with two options that I recommend and have posted about:
1. Go buy a UV permanent marker and hand-held UV torch ($20) and write your secret keys on something like a wedding invitation or a page of a book. That book can be hidden safely so that EVEN if someone gets their hands on it they would need both a UV torch and the page number of the book to find the keys.
How To Protect Your Hardware Wallet Recovery Key (Ledger, Trezor) and Private Wallets (Exodus, Electrum etc) for $15 - A novel approach to securing your paper wallet and protecting the weakest link
https://steemit.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/how-to-protect-your-hardware-wallet-recovery-key-ledger-trezor-and-private-wallets-exodus-electrum-etc-for-usd15-a-novel
2. Use Lastpass.com to store all your keys. This approach is VERy safe, and has two Factor Authentication. IT also has the AMAZING advantage of allowing you to delegate access to a trusted person in the event of your disappearance or death. This is probably the main reason I use lastpass.com!
The best way I know of to be secure, safe, protected, and give access to your accounts in the event of emergencies or death: LastPass
https://steemit.com/steemit/@eco-alex/the-best-way-i-know-of-to-be-secure-safe-protected-and-give-access-to-your-accounts-in-the-event-of-emergencies-or-death
I hope this has been useful to you, and if you were about to buy one of these perhaps consider the limitations and alternatives. If you have any other ideas please do let us know in the comments! As for me, if anyone want's my Ledger Nano S let me know! ;-)
Thanks for being here with me and the @ecoTrain!
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Hey eco, alex. Timely post, so thanks. I have recently received 2 Nano's procured the same way as yours complete with the price hike as I also live remotely (Tonga). The similarity does not end there. I am a bit longer in the tooth than you and as such my eyes have a few more miles on them .....and they are crap. I completely agree the size of the screen is a pain, I went one step further than the mag specs (as I already use specs) I went into my wife sewing room and got her magnifier light, which did the trick. I am also a mac user and I had the same problem as in that I could not get the computer to see the ledger. Eventually after a few hours of trying and trawling the internet and taking blood pressure meds to try and calm down, my wife came in and suggested that I try using her computer (a PC). Reluctantly I unplugged from my mac and plugged into her machine.....bloody thing worked straight away......resulting in me feeling much better until I saw the smug look on my wife face. Then out of curiosity I immediately tried it on my mac again and the bloody thing hooked straight up. So yes I can completely empathise with your frustration however, overall now that I am set up, I do feel much more at ease. I love the idea of the IR pen and light, I am off to Australia in a few weeks so I will be going shopping, so a big thanks for that gem. With regards to how many wallets you can get on the ledger, and obviously I don't know which coins you are into but if they are ERC 20 then you can use the MyEther wallet which can contain all your Ethereum based coins. Any way thanks again for the post. Cheers J
thanks for this comment Jeff! WOw.. we had the same experience in MAY ways huh! im surprised to hear that mac seems to be a problem for you too.. i guess they have a major issue.. and no support to handle it.. very strange!
Glad you like the UV pen idea.. that is priceless i think.. the page of the book its on becomes the PIN number ;-)
Hi eco-alex and jeff, For some reason busy wouldn't let me post my own comment so i had to post here? Seems odd but anyway!
I have a ledger and I actually thought it was pretty cool. I personally wouldn't want the screen to be any bigger then it is, simply because I want it to always be small. It shouldn't be something that can be easily found.
I agree on how it can only hold 4 apps is a bit crazy, Considering there are thousands of alts I would have expected that it would be able to hold a lot of different ones. So I think they could work on that, and I can't see any problems with them being able to do that.
You say that if your 24 words are compromised then that's it, you lose it all. However, you would have to have your ledger and your 24 words taken. As the ledger has to be physically plugged in for anyone to actually remove the coins.
If you're still looking for a hardware wallet, Maybe have a look at a Trezor as I believe they can hold more than 4 cryptos :P
Thanks for the read. It's always interesting to see other peoples points of views.
Hey dealsy, now that it is all sorted they seem to be working fine and I am happy with them, however, I was thinking that I might get a tremor and give it a try as I have heard good things about them. When I originally ordered the Ledgers I was looking at both options but every thing seemed to be sold out and supplies where as rare as hens teeth apart from on eBay, and I had heard so many dodgy stories from people who had bought their wallets via eBay that I was not interested in getting any through them. Cheers J
Yeah, I think it's worth a shot especially if you have a fair bit invested. For me, I only have a few coins, A fair amount in those ones, But because of that the ledger is perfect for me :D I think there comes a point where a hardware wallet is almost needed. I'm not sure you would want to store a lot of worth on a desktop or mobile wallet :P
YepI agree, as much as it was reasonably stressful getting the things sorted I am much happier now that my keys are locked away, even though I also do not have a portfolio anywhere near the size that I would like. Cheers J
So sorry to hear that, i thought these things were supposed to be the best. Big thank you as i planned on getting one myself.
Very welcome brotha! waSte of time! ;-) get your UV pen out ;-)
Did you ever hear about https://etherdelta.com? It is a decentralised exchange, needs a youtube to understand it, but you have your offline wallet for all unknown EC20 coins. I am playing around with in combination with MetaMask, a browser plugin that manages your Ethereum adresses and gives you a wallet for each, there is some really crazy stuff out there, sometimes i feel we are still scratching the surface :-)
NICE! i will check that out for sure thanks for this. .Im waiting for ETHOS to release there ALL altcoins in one wallet!
150$ ? WTF ? My cousin bought one for 60Eur. Why did you pay so much.?
import duty is 50% here!
OMG
Phew you are alive! hows the trading been going Vangey!?
Hard. The market is drowning. :D I bought mid drop so looking to sell on the next all-time highs.
I'm always alive, just sitting in the shadows for a lot of time :D
Very interesting! I love learning stuff like this without spending the money!
Personally, I use a coinomi wallet app on my phone- they don't have every ERC20, but they do have hundreds!
THANK YOU.. god we need each other to figure this all out! ;-)
Sounds like a complete ball ache from start to finish.
:(
How very disappointing.
My personal alarm bell rang when you mentioned Google as an integral part of the process; not keen on their move for world domination.
Recently found out about 'Presearch' which is a tokenised search engine in Beta that pays for searching ~ you may wish to Google it!
(Oh the irony!)
xox
ooh interesting.. i do love google im afraid.. because of many things,, but i can understand you being nervous about any one company holding so much power! Still, when i compare google to any other large company, they win hands down!
ill check that Presearch out! thanks ;-)
I get you ~ Google is the best but their far reach makes me more than nervous.
Trying to wean myself off :)
Sorry to be so blatant but I have a series of short form essays on love that could do with a little!
If you have a quiet moment I would surely welcome your thoughts. You can read the first one here.
Hope you have a great weekend.
xox
I had pretty much the same problems you did with my Nano S, tried about everything and finally sold it to a friend. I had all of my coins on exchanges and coinbase until I moved some to steemit and bought a HW.1 and put my Bitcoin and private keys on it. It was a lot easier to setup.
thanks for this.. whats a HW1/>?
Hey Alex, I think that the HW-1 is a predecessor of the Nano, its a USB that goes directly into your computer but it does not have a screen. Cheers J
Thanks for the info bro!
Great article, I will check this again for reference soon and look over it better as I have been thinking lot about this lately and want to find the "best" solutions!
pleasure! just use lastpass.com .. end of your problems,, AND your loved one can access things if you vanish.. you can double backup with an encrypted file on your laptop and backup drives / USB etc.. That is rock solid i reckon! mind you i do just love that UV pen trick.. i think that would fool most people..
What if the computer has a trojan or something in it when you use/access lastpass?
Yea the uv trick is pretty good except for that now everyone knows ur trick......LMAO
i think it is trojan proof because the key never leaves the device and no way can get in.. but it's all meaningless with the private key exposed either on paper or digitally.!
lol.. well if you are smart you can still fool us.. u could do in a HUGE encyclopedia.. so no one will ever find it without having to go through every page.. oops sorry ive spoiled that idea now too!
And people wonder what I mean when I say our current system is driven by inefficiency...
They are making sure they can sell the next 5 generations of the Nano ledger, slowly and annoyingly including and updating the features everyone expected of version 1. How else could they keep their business going if they fulfilled all reasonable expectations right away?
Great article man, helps me to not worry about getting a nano for now. I love your UV idea, that will be the way to go for now. Cheers!
yeah good po8nt.. but it makes me wonder why no one else has done it properly yet.! thanks mate!
Exactly. Yours seems like the only onest review, actually detailing how you used it, and what (reasonable) expectations didn't get fulfilled.
Most 'reviews' I've seen mention how awesome it is to store your keys on this. And how much better it is than storing them elsewehere. and then: Review over. ahahaha.
I’m pretty new to crypto and love my ledger, I found it very easy to use. I mainly have erc 20 tokens and use MEW and it was painless. I haven’t sold anything since I started buying in July... and this just makes me hold more because it literally makes it harder to panic sell 😂
happy to know its working for someone! ;-)
Nice post! I recently bought one at a higher price on Amazon too. I've put my ERC20 coins on the ethereum appt through MyEtherWallet. I agree that the tech could be a lot better and it could be way more user-friendly. Overall, it does the job right now but I'm not so sure I would have spent the money on it in hindsight!
Hi, the same thing I sold my nano s 150 euros and she listens to me 70. So 80 euros more is impeccable
I will buy the UV permanent marker and hand-held UV torch
Thanks
Good move! ;-)
Had the same problems you did with my Nano S :(
Lastpass.com sounds a much better option. We are good for now but 5 years down the line many coins will be out of circulation. Unfortunate but people die and so does the currency with them in this case.
What is the use of my money if it can't help my close ones after my death.
Fair Point.
For larger Values i would use an Multisign-Wallet with 2 out of four.
• At home
• At the Bank
• By an friend
• With your last will at a notary
if you whant to use - Home/Bank or Home/Friend
If you Die ists enough to get the last will from your notary and go to the bank - no need for the friend or to find the hidden one at your home.
After see your post and see your comments i realized that you are not only good user
You are also a good speaker
I am very happy to follow you
Today my exam has started,,That's I can not come to your blog,,i'm very sorry,, Pray for me so that my exam is good,,,
liking the uv permanent marker plan and page number :-) thank you! i feel my eyesight going a bit too so that ledger wouldnt be for me!
Coins mentioned in post:
Did you know you can exchange the coin apps in and out of your nano? You can load Litecoin app, send your itecoin to it then delete the app from your nano. Whenever you want to access your litecoin, you simply load the litecoin app back onto your nano. So you can have a max of 5 apps on the nano at any one time, but you can switch them around at any time without losing any coin.
Sorry to hear about the device. If you have brought from Amazon was't there any reviews about the product. I usually buy from Amazon and always checks other people's reviews. Once i had brought a hair dryer and it had very bad reviews, but i didn't bother about reviews. After two days using it, It got damaged. From that time i realize always trust people not the product.
hmmmm ! thank you for this feedback. I've felt the pressure to buy one of these myself... my hesitancy was because i have so many ALT coins that aren't even able to be stored on here..!
This basically seals the nail on the coffin.
I think your suggestions of what to do instead are more helpful tho I do wish there was a great and easy solution to storing these safely! Thanks @eco-alex for the review and saving me over $100! :)
yay!!! glad i saved you some money.. thanks for letting me know!
Very good points. I have recently bought a ledger and find it very useful. The security does need to get better but the words or quite safe I think only I know where there are and unless you are looking for them I don't think they'll get out. But a vail point for sure ! 💯🐒