Bitcoin Forum

I am trying to sign a message to claim Bitcore for my BTC addresses. I use a Ledger Nano wallet (not a Nano S) which cannot sign messages on its own. I was told to try doing it in conjunction with Electrum but have been unsuccessful in signing the message. Is there a Windows friendly program that will sign messages either in conjunction with my Nano or independently? Thanks very much

Does Ledger have a message signing API? Since the private key never leaves the device, if it doesn't you'll be left with insecure options.

The Nano has a "sign message" option but you get an error message when you try and sign. This is not some glitch on my end, but a well-known flaw in the Nano. There have been two firmware updates recently to deal with BCH and Segwit. I don't think that had anything to do with disabling the signing function but in any case it just doesn't work on the Nano. The newer Nano S apparently can sign. Electrum is capable of utilizing the addresses from the Nano (and has done it with mine). It also has a "sign message" option but again, perhaps because of the Nano flaw, that signing doesn't work either. It says it's signing but it never happens.

As a last resort, would recovery seeds from the Nano work with the Nano S? If so, you can switch from one to another with a trusted computer.

The Ledger Nano seed should work with any other Ledger device or any BIP39 compatible software. So you could import it to Electrum and sign there, but If you ever do that, the device will be kinda useless as the whole point from using it in the first place is to not have your private keys leave the device.

The ledger nano s offers the option to sign messages from addresses which were created on this ledger.
You have to open the settings menu -> tools -> "sign message".
Afterwards you can choose an address which you want to use signing the message and enter your message.
Sometimes it shows an error message. In this case you should try to update your firmware and try it again afterwards.

But I have a Nano, not a Nano S.

Just install Bitcoin Core and import the keys by going to Help->Debug windows->Console and type . I am unfamiliar with Nano devices, but if you can get your private key then you should be fine. In order to revert back to the security you had before you imported the address you need to send the bitcoins from that address to the new address created on your hardware wallet.

Excuse me for my typo. I meaned the Nano. I own a ledger nano myself (nano, not the new nano s).
And signing message works as i wrote above.



I would not recommend to import your private keys into bitcoin core. You would have to use your recovery seed to create the
private keys to be able to import them to bitcoin core since ledger does not support key exports.
Additionally this would completely destroy the sense of having a hardware wallet which is not directly connected to the internet.