Testing out my Nano Ledger S hardware wallet - Despite initial skepticism, it's actually pretty neat!

Yesterday I finally received my Ledger Nano S hardware wallet finally, and initially I was a bit skeptical because the build quality seems less than optimal. I promised I would post my experiences with setting it up and trying it out. This took all evening yesterday, actually!

While the Ledger Nano S works great and pretty easily once you get the hang of it, I must admit I did take my sweet time into setting it up. Part of this was because of my skeptic nature: I needed to make sure that even if I lost my Ledger Nano S I would still be able to reach my funds! So for me it was essential that any private key I get from the Ledger Nano S can also be used in other wallets.

This is not as clear-cut as it seems!!!

To be short: YES, with the single private key of the Ledger Nano S I was able to recover both my Bitcoin address as well as Ethereum on non-Ledger wallets. HOWEVER, there are some buts. Firstly, the private key is a 24 word passphrase which does not work on every wallet but only those which support 24 word passphrases! Getting a backup of the Ethereum wallet turned out to be easy: Myetherwallet works perfect - and it turns out you need this to access ERC-20 tokens anyway. The Bitcoin wallet took a bit longer to recover. The reason for this is because the Ledger Nano S asks you if you want a Segwit or Non-Segwit address. I chose a Segwit address initially. When I loaded my private key in other, supposedly compatible wallets, it showed a different address. However when I made a non-Segwit address on the Leder later, I was able to reach the same wallet.

I could not find a way to recover my Ledger Nano S Segwit Bitcoin address yet. If anybody knows how to do this PLEASE let me know, I would rather have lower fees with the Segwit address. Currently I have not transferred BTC yet to my Ledger until I figure this out, since with all the Bittrex withdrawal fees (damn they are high these days!!) I already spent over 20$ on all kinds of fees just to pull my funds away from exchanges and into my wallet - and I haven't even put all of my portfolio in yet.

Besides all the paranoid steps I was taking in making sure it was secure and recoverable, I also spent a fair amount of time setting the device up (getting repetitive strain injury-pains from repeatedly pressing the Ledger buttons actually) and then resetting it and recovering it to make sure I did everything right.

However, that being said, when it was finally setup, it does work pretty nice!

The interface is (mainly) through Google Chrome apps and since I normally use Firefox, I now have Chrome dedicated purely to crypto-trading tools/sites. On Chrome you basically have two apps which you use, and a third one which is only for installing/uninstalling. The two you actually use are the Bitcoin wallet and the Ethereum wallet. If you install more altcoins, like I did with Stratis, and you want to access them you do this through the same Bitcoin app as you normally do. It is not an 'all-in-one' wallet. You don't have an overview of both Ethereum and Bitcoin at the same time - you have to open/close each wallet seperately, involving some clicking the Ledger Nano S (this takes some getting used to initially).

The Bitcoin and Ethereum wallets will let you choose between things like: BTC or BCH, Segwit or Legacy, ETH or ETC, and so on. Additionally, if you want to put ERC-20 tokens on the hardware wallet you can, but it won't show up on the official Ledger Nano S chrome app. You will have to connect your Ledger to MyEtherWallet in order to view, or send, ERC-20 tokens.

Connecting your Ledger Nano S to websites is actually damn cool
Now you may be disappointed that your ERC-20 tokens don't show up in the Ethereum Ledger app, but don't worry about it! I've actually discovered that these chrome apps are a good, solid backbone to fall back on. But the true strength of the Ledger Nano S lies in the fact you can connect to online resources with it! Not only can you safely and easily log into MyEtherWallet (after pressing the buttons on the Ledger a few times for the right settings) with out having to enter addresses or passphrases.. just a few clicks and you're in! But where the Ledger Nano S truly shines is when you try to connect to, for example, a peer-to-peer exchange such as Etherdelta. I will dedicate my next post to describing my Etherdelta experience - which is actually synonymous with my Ledger Nano S experience at this point!

Stay tuned for more!

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