Ledger: what it is and how to use it
Ledger is a widely used French hardware wallet that supports many coins. It keeps keys off your computer, but its code is partly closed and the company has had a customer data leak.
Overview
| Category | Hardware wallets |
|---|---|
| KYC required | to verify |
| Open source | Depends |
| Price | — |
| Official site | www.ledger.com |
Tools marked as partner are listed first in their category and use an affiliate link: this site may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It does not change the assessment: each brand's limits and incidents are described with the same criteria.
How do you use Ledger?
- Buy from Ledger's official site, typed by hand or via this site's affiliate link, and check the domain before paying.
- Reject any unit from a marketplace, second-hand, or with a pre-filled recovery card.
- Choose "create new wallet" and let the device generate the words itself; never use a ready-made seed someone gave you.
- Write the words by hand, numbered and in order, on paper; for the long term, engrave them in metal.
- Confirm the backup on the device, and never photograph the seed, type it into a website or store it in the cloud.
- Test recovery with a small amount before moving anything significant.
- Set a strong PIN and use Ledger as the signer in a software wallet such as Sparrow or Cake Wallet.
What are the limits and cautions?
- The code is partly closed, which divides opinion; anyone who requires fully open code should weigh this.
- In 2020 the online store's customer base was accessed through an API key, exposing about 1 million emails (about 272 thousand with address and phone). Buying from the store leaves personal data with the company.
- This site uses a Ledger affiliate link and may earn a commission at no extra cost to you; it does not change the assessment above.
Other Hardware wallets tools
How to Buy Bitcoin Anonymously — See the book on Amazon