Buy and Sell

Ledger Nano S: secure multi-currency hardware wallet

Ledger Nano S is a secure Bitcoin and Ethereum hardware wallet. It connects to any computer through USB and embeds a built-in OLED display to double-check and confirm each transaction with a single tap on its side buttons. It is available for the price of 79 EUR (+VAT) and is fully compatible with the previous generation of Ledger products if you want to import an existing account.

Features with Firmware 1.2

-Passphrase support for plausible deniability or seed backup protection (compatible with BIP39)
-Alternative duress PIN
-Shuffle PIN option
-Token & basic contract support (data field) for Ethereum
-MyEtherWallet integration on Chrome and Opera without third party extensions
-Support for GreenAddress & Greenbits (Android, desktop coming soon)
-Litecoin support
-Ledger Manager: application & firmware updates

Nano S is architectured around the BOLOS platform, a powerful and flexible Operating System allowing the secure execution of multiple Open Source applications in full isolation.

Why the need for a hardware wallet?

If you are not familiar with the notion of hardware wallets, you may wonder what the advantages are versus a paper wallet or an encrypted private key on a computer.

The main principle behind hardware wallets is to provide full isolation between the cryptographic secrets (private keys) and your easy to hack computer or smartphone. Vulnerabilities of modern PCs and smartphones are well known, and if you keep your private keys there (private key = your bitcoins) it’s just a matter of time before you’ll get hacked and lose everything.

A paper wallet may be secure, but only until you want to use your funds, requiring importing your private keys on your computer. And if you think a password encrypting your keys is enough, a malware is smart enough to wait for the inevitable decryption before sweeping your funds.

Ledger Wallet Chrome applications

Nano S comes with a set of Chrome applications to manage your cryptocurrency wallets. The Bitcoin Chrome app is an award winning wallet featuring multi-accounts and rich settings.

In order to manage ethers (the cryptocurrency from the Ethereum network), we have launched a dedicated Chrome app, functioning on the same principles as the Bitcoin one. You can have different accounts and securely receive or send ETH/ETC from your Nano S.

The Ledger Manager is a tool to update your firmware and install new applications on your Nano S.

FIDO U2F Authenticator

Nano S is running a certified U2F app and can be used as a second factor security key for Google, Github, Dropbox and other compatible services.

This 2FA mechanism replaces SMS or OTP codes such as Google Authenticators or Authy, and is not only much more secure but also really practical to use.