Ledger: What You May NOT Know

Screen Shot 2018-11-28 at 19.12.15.png

The latest firmware for Ledger products is version 1.4.2

If it’s been a hot minute since you’ve used your ledger hardware wallet there is now the Ledger Live app which acts as the manager of your device.
It allows you to install and uninstall different wallets as well as monitoring your portfolio (for those of you brave enough to publish your holdings onto an app that is saved on your computer).
It also connects you to different exchanges like Changelly, Coinhouse and Coinmama, so you can make trades as well.
This makes managing all of the wallets connected to your hardware device much easier than having to use separate Google Apps for each coin.

There are two relatively new apps you can check out, one is called HODL and the other is Recovery Check.
HODL is an app that makes it easier to input your wallet addresses into forms to remove human error from the transfer process. Instead of manually typing in your address, or accidentally copying the wrong address and ultimately sending your precious coins to the wrong place to be lost forever, this app fills in your wallet address automatically.

Recovery check allows you to double check pretty easily that you’ve written your recovery phrase correctly. So if your device is ever destroyed, lost or stolen or you’ve forgot your PIN, you can know for sure that you can still gain access to your cryptos.

There’s another app for the Ledger Nano S and Ledger Blue wallets called FIDO U2F, which is an app that allows you to use your hardware wallet to generate 2 factor authentication codes for third party platforms like Gmail, Facebook and GitHub.
Considering the fact that other 2 factor authenticators require the use of your cell phone (something that is easily hacked) this option is potentially more safe since the ledger is never connected to the internet.

I found a pretty helpful reddit post that goes over some tricks to look out for when pairing your Ledger Blue wallet with an android device so if this is something you want to try, here’s a hint: the device pairing PIN is 123456.

One very important thing to note regarding this FIDO U2F app is that each time you update your firmware on the ledger device, all apps need to be reinstalled, including the FIDO U2F app.
You will need to reconfigure this for each platform you use this 2 factor authentication with before you’ll be able to log into them. So if you’re going to do the firmware update and you use this app for multiple platforms, it’s probably much easier to first disable this authentication service on each platform, perform the update, and then reinstate it for each of the platforms you use.

Since the Ledger Blue has bluetooth capabilities, it’s not exactly a perfectly cold version of cold storage. I know I’m nitpicking here and I know it’s still better than using a cell phone that itself is very easy to hack, but these are the details that are worth paying attention to and train yourself to notice since you are now your own line of defense between this world of hackers and your cryptocurrency investments, responsibility starts now.

Sort:  

Thanks for the review! 😊 #shared #ledger #orderingnow

Ledger Live was certainly an improvement but to be honest I feel like the Ledger is too hard for people to use and the whole premise of having to take the coin apps off the device to add other coin apps on but then the device is still holding your keys is super scary and confusing to people.

I really hope in the future it can be improved to where someone could hold coins for 50 different projects on a device like that without having to add and remove stuff.

I'm in agreement there. The whole process is still being developed, but it would be nice if it were a lot simpler to use. Streamlining the usage and allowing for more coins to be held would help a lot.

Thanks Heidi. Ordered 3 Nanos on the black friday sale :-)
Resteemed :-)

Ordered 3 Nanos on the black friday sale :-)

I'm too. Exectly 23.58pm. 🤠

nanos.reiseamateur.jpg

Today is coming, yeaah!!
But only one for me, the other is a gift for Christmas!

Nice work taking advantage of that sale! Thanks for the share :)

I still use a hot wallet on my phone scary enough even though im it for the long term hodl. I know I should get a ledger wallet but I've just not gotten around to it. You've just reminded me that I really need to get my act together

I believe in you ;)

Hot wallet on mobile phone..LOL
That's what i call bad decision.

great infos, thanks to you. I didn't know the 2 Apps on the Ledger

I really need to get myself a Ledger. O have been postponing this for too much time already.

Posted using Partiko Android

I have got to get one of these!! Thanks for the info Hedi 👍

I was about to order one for me on the black friday (half the price), but I decided to stick with the same method. Mostly because my stake is not big enough to be "paranoid" (don't get me wrong, security is never enough).

Congratulations @heiditravels! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

You made more than 51000 upvotes. Your next target is to reach 52000 upvotes.

Click here to view your Board of Honor
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

Support SteemitBoard's project! Vote for its witness and get one more award!

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.22
TRX 0.21
JST 0.035
BTC 98736.02
ETH 3346.70
USDT 1.00
SBD 3.12