Bitcoin Forum

Im considering buying hardware wallet from ledger as I want to control and own my funds instead of having everything on exchanges.
My question is what will happen if ledger site goes offline completely and the owner disappears, will the wallet still function? even in 1000 years?

Do you guys think ledger is a good choice? are they trustworthy etc?

are there any risks of the hardware wallets being bugged so they can steal funds later from all users?

I think you can still use it even though the Ledger website is closed because you control the private key of your hardware wallet.

Humans cannot know how long the Ledger is functioning, but at least the hardware wallet has more resilience compared to other wallet types.

Maybe the following article can answer your question:

Breaking the Ledger Security Model - Saleem Rashid
https://saleemrashid.com/2018/03/20/breaking-ledger-security-model/ (https://saleemrashid.com/2018/03/20/breaking-ledger-security-model/)

You are buying "Ledger Wallet" and it doesn't have any direct connection to the Ledger website. Think of it as buying a USB flash drive, whatever the brand is you are buying the flash drive not the brand.

So yes, it is secure as long as you keep the 24-keyword phrase of your ledger (keep it on the safe deposit box separately). If your ledger wallet is broken, just buy a new one and recover it using your 24 phrases.

1) If ledger goes out of business or offline, you can always recover your funds on a compatible wallet. What is a compatible wallet? See this: https://support.ledger.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005297709-On-which-wallet-can-I-restore-my-wallet-if-I-lose-my-Ledger-device

Note that they do not indicate Trezor as a compatible wallet but it is. Have tried restoring from Trezor and it works.

2) is ledger a good choice? Personally use it and have no complaints so far. Not sure why there are so many complaints on Reddit though...

3) can it have bugs? Yeap, hence the need to keep track of updates.

Trezor is their competitor so of course, they don't list it. I'd be surprised if they did.


That's not necessary. You can restore the wallet on any other wallet as long as they support 24 phrases. But of course, if you want to continue using Ledger then that's required.

Keep in mind that if you buy Nano S, the number of apps that you can install is really limited. Might as well go for Nano X if you want bigger storage.

Software gets bugged all the time. It is to be expected. Bugged in a way that hackers can steal your funds though? I don't think so. As long as your 24 word seed is secure, hidden from plain sight, and stored non-digitally, it's probably next to impossible for your funds to be stolen.

I've owned 2 Ledger Nano S's for more than 2 years already and almost never had a problem besides some small minor stuff like Ledger Live displaying inaccurate bitcoin prices. It still boggles me how people on Reddit are for some reason messing up their devices LOL.

Since you'll also have the seed, you should be able to get access to your funds - with ledger or with something else - even in 1000 years.
So you can use Ledger as long as it works, make sure you keep the seed super-safe and you'll look for alternatives when the Ledger will stop working.

If you buy Ledger from an unknown seller or if your your seed can be accessed by someone else besides you, you can instantly lose your funds. On Reddit, we can keep seeing users who either leave their seed at home or save it in their email and then some users who have bought it from a friend/seller online and they get their wallets hacked. Trezor is the same in this case and these wallets are not safe as you have the seed which can be lost as well. They should have some more security features so that even if someone gets access to the seed, funds can still be not moved.

Both Ledger and Trezor do have a feature that does this. It is called a "Passphrase". Essentially, in addition to requiring your 24 word seed, you also need a user set passphrase to unlock the wallet. The passphrase can be anything from a word to an entire sentence or a complete jumble of ASCII characters, up to 50 characters for a Trezor or up to 100 for a Ledger. You can also set up multiple passphrases with the same seed to unlock multiple different and separate wallets. Be aware that if you forget your passphrase, your funds will be lost forever. It is good practice to back up your passphrase non-electronically and separate from your seed phrase.

There are instructions on how to do set up a passphrase at these links:

https://support.ledger.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005214529-Advanced-passphrase-security
https://wiki.trezor.io/Passphrase