Bitcoin Forum

Which Wallet is the Most Suitable Option When Switching from Ledger, and What Are the Reasons Behind This Choice?

I am currently using the Ledger X hardware wallet. However, I have serious concerns about their closed-source software. Therefore, I am seeking the best alternative that can fully secure my funds. Specifically, I am looking for a multicoin wallet, not limited to Bitcoin.

Could you please recommend the most suitable option and explain the reasons behind your choice? Your assistance will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I will recommend you Passport (https://foundationdevices.com/passport/). It is an open source wallet but it is only supporting bitcoin.

If you need the one that supports altcoins, I will recommend you Trezor. But Trezor coinjoin is from Wasabi which is now censoring bitcoin transactions. So avoid the coinjoin.

The most important thing to recommend is to not reuse the private key you used on the Ledger. Create a new key on the new wallet and then migrate the funds.

On my website you have a comparison of the best wallets: https://thebitcoinhole.com/

One thing I have noticed about some hardware wallets is that they start out as very good, trustable, open-source and highly privacy conscious wallets only for them to turn around on their customers later after they have purchased the devices because of greed.

I believe you can attest to this after purchasing the Ledger x back in the day vs the situation today. I am personally ashamed of recommending people to use ledger hardware wallets back then.

My suggestion is that you get one of your devices with a clean OS that you will never connect to the internet or install in any random app, and then create a wallet in that air-gapped device (electrum, unstoppable wallet, sparrow wallet etc.) and then carefully and securly keep your seeds. This way you avoid this greedy hardware wallet company disappointments.

You can also consider BitBox02 from Shift Crypto: https://bitbox.swiss/

Shift Crypto is a Swiss company, and as far as I know, they have an impeccable reputation so far. They have both, Bitcoin only and multicoin versions of the hardware wallet, the software and firmware is open source and the price is comparable to the Ledger Nano X. Personally, I like the design of the device even more than the Ledger, especially the screen and touch buttons.

It is one of the hardware wallets that I liked to recommend people in the past until it the company that manufactured it started to support AOPP that can make privacy to be the thing of the past. AOPP is mandatory to people in the country the hardware wallet is manufactured which is Switzerland and the hardware supports AOPP. People that support privacy are not supporting such wallet.

Depends on the use, do you want a wallet for bitcoin only or you want to buy several cryptocurrency pairs.

If you only plan to HODL your bitcoins and want to sell after several months/years, airgapped system would be an ideal option.
For Altcoins Good bitcoin wallets could be Passport, Coldcard wallet or Keystone 3 HW (will be announced soon)

Pay attention, there are many wallets that claim to be hardware wallets, they post code on Github, but this does not make their use safe, as standards such as secure element, cryptographic method, dealing with SD/RAM and protection from physical attacks are what make one of them better not only open source code.


You have some time for firmware update, so don't rush into choices.

As long as there is an industry of crypto currencies, the question "Which Wallet is the Most Suitable Option When Switching from Ledger any other brand, and What Are the Reasons Behind This Choice?" will always be relevant, with the only difference being that the brand name in the question will change. Today it is a ledger, and tomorrow it will be some other one. And also, it will change depending on the user who has opted for one or another model of hardware wallet.

There are quite a few devices, but in fact, there is nothing to choose from: there are few truly reliable and trusted devices. Almost all models have some flaws, dubious design and technical solutions, troubles with hacked databases, suspicious collaborations, and so on. Devices on which, with a clear conscience, one could store crypto assets - a few and go and figure out which of this list [BIG LIST] Hardware wallets (80+) (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282364.0) is included in this number.

OP limits his question to 1 device, but what if we expand the number of devices and use multi-signature for storage of crypto? This has been discussed many times on the forum and has its advantages. That is, buy 2-3 devices instead of one and use it with a multi-signature, which will not allow one or another manufacturer to access your wallets. In this case, even the problem with the closed source code of the ledger will be leveled.

One HW that is currently considered the best option when it comes to Bitcoin has already been mentioned, and what you need is really something that can be debated for a long time. Luckily I don't have to think about altcoins, and what little I have from the past is not worth much, and I guess in the future it will be worth even less.

If I were you, I would definitely move BTC (if you own it) to a more secure device, and if you have a significant value in altcoins and feel that Ledger is too much of a risk, choose any open-source HW with a good reputation.

I think you have missed this up. Both the passport and Coldcard wallet are strictly for bitcoin only and cannot be used for Alticoin.

And for Keystone 3 it is yet to be released and with the repeated changes or updates all thought they all look great now. It is still too early to start recommending them to anyone just yet

Since May of  this year  I have been  an active user of Passport 2. Now,   after two months of experience  with it,  I must admit  that  I have absolutely no regrets about my decision to acquire  this wallet.

Why is that.  Because it is airgapped device capable to sign transactions via QR codes. Than, it is open in both way - hardware and software, the latter is characterized by reproducible builds . Worth to mention also its TRNG fed by Avalanche diode,  BIP85 compliance, user-friendly interface, durability of its build, sharp color display with the build-in controller, the opt to backup  SEED and device settings  in the form of encrypted zip file, removable  Lithium  battery in Nokia BL-5C form factor.

I am late to the party here but I stand by my Trezor T's because as you requested ------ > they are open source.

I really enjoy Trezor suite with TOR enabled too.  In the last two days I completed two transactions slightly exceeding a thousand dollars and my mining fee with bc1 addresses set at default suite settings --- ended up being around 45-55 cents for each transaction.  Fast too.  Had about a dozen confirmations in less than an hour on both transfers.

I go back to Trezor 1's and T's and they never let me down --- ever!!

I believe transaction fees are independent of what software you use to make them most of the time. As long as the mempool condition is the same, any decent wallet should give you the same recommendation fees (not to mention you can change it yourself most of the time). So I don't think a cheaper transaction fee is a key feature to select your HW wallet. Maybe things will change if too many HW releases with exclusive software that doesn't allow you to change fees. CMIIW.

Thanks for correcting me, I wanted to write bitcoin, wrote altcoin and one of the lines was deleted.
For altcoins you can use keepkey.

It looks promising and according to what has been mentioned, it provides good protection against physical attacks, which is something you do not find in most HW wallets.

There isn't one universal hardware wallet solution for everyone.
I would certainly switch to some open source hardware wallet, that is minimum for people who want to switch from ledger.
If I had to pick one hardware wallet for Bitcoin than I would probably choose Passport wallet, but this is not device for storing altcoins.

If you want to use Bitcoin and shitcoins for your hardware wallet than you can check Keystone, Trezor, BitBox or OneKey wallet.
Trezor model One is cheapest option but Trezor announced they will soon stop producing it, and Trezor Model T is expensive for me, so I think Keystone is better and it's not that much expensive.
Maybe you could jump in for new model Keystone 3 that is going to be released soon, and it will have a bunch of improvements compared to current Keystone models.
OneKey is based on Trezor source code but they added secure elements with few changes and nice design.
BitBox have separate multicoin wallet version and it is Swiss made device.

Alternative cheap way, that is not really a hardware wallet, is airgap.it.
Use your old smartphone, reset it, disable all internet and wifi connections, install AirGap Vault app and use it similar way like any hardware wallet (for Bitcoin and altcoins).
Or just use old laptop as airgapped device.

Do you say that from your personal experience, or do you just think it's a good HW? I've noticed that you give a lot of "bad" advices in the Development & Technical Discussion board, and this is just another in a series - and you should keep in mind that bad advice can have serious consequences for some people who read it.

Keepkey has long been voted one of the worst HW, and if you don't believe it, read the opinion of one of the forum members.

Yes, the Keepkey is a worthless black bricklet (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5226098.0)

I believe the developers of Ledger hardware have noticed the decline in the usability of their wallets. What have they done or said towards this close source and recovery implementation. I will like to know.

That is why it is very important to verify and re-verify every information gotten here. Especially when it is not from a reputable and knowledgeable member. If someone continue to give bad advice, it will not be long they will be in the ignore list of most people.

keepkey is an open source wallet, but my main advice is don't invest in altcoins, I'm not a fan of hardware wallets as I prefer the airgapped system.

I quickly read @The Skeptical Chymist's article, it is not technical and he tells personal experience and complains about ShapeShift. But I am open to discussion if there is someone who would like to buy it and have a personal experience.

If you find any wrong or bad advice, please directly correct me.


This is an open forum and everyone is watching my tips. If you see something you think is wrong, simply quote the text with a source and a reason why you think that.
Dividing members into reputable and regular members is detrimental to the quality of discussions and is a behavior that should be discontinued.

Do not be offended, I honestly generalised the above statement but it's coincidental I quoted a direct statement relating to you. I do not undermine your knowledge and neither do I assume you are not reputable or regular. As you said, this is an open forum and everyone is free to give whatever advice and it's left to the beneficiaries of such advices/information to filter and accept whatever is useful to them.
Keep contributing and making the community grow. My kind regards.

I am using Jade. I erase its memory after each usage, so it keeps my keys only for 5 mins, in order for me to sign transactions. Jade is cheap and fully airgapped.

Trezor T. 

I'm a bit pissed with Trezor, to be honest.  I really don't like the fact that they're contracting (indirectly) with chain analysis, but as long as you don't use the coinjoin feature built into Trezor Suite, or avoid using Trezor Suite all together, then you're privacy won't be compromised. 

Having said that, if you're using Trezor Suite for altcoins, your privacy is fucked regardless.  The only way to use any hardware wallet with ultimate privacy is to run your own nodes for each of the shitaltcoins you hold.  I don't use Trezer Suite much because the only alt coins I own are XMR and a little bit of Doge.  The Trezor T can be used with XMR only with the official Monero wallet, there's no support for XMR in Trezor Suite.  The Trezor One is not compatible with XMR, and I think there are few other coins that it won't support.

Both Trezor models are very user-friendly, and mine (both models) have been working great for years.  Trezors are open-source, but they don't have a secure element.  The lack of a secure element makes them vulnerable to a physical attack (the wallet needs to be physically accessible to the hacker.)

Now, after all that talk about Trezor it's worth noting that I prefer Foundation's Passport and Coinkite's ColdCard over the Trezor.  You're likely to read a similar comment from every bitcoin maximalist on this forum.

Thanks for this assessment, I need to look more into the Passport and CoinKite, the Model T Seems to be the best option on the market in terms of market share. I wonder if we know exactly how many people use each of those wallets in relation to population of crypto HODLERs. Is there a way to know that information?

I'm a former Ledger user too.  I switched to Krux, which is a fully airgapped hardware wallet that pairs with apps like BlueWallet, Nunchuck, Sparrow, Specter, etc.

I posted a full review of Krux here. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5350905.msg62894510#msg62894510)

The thing I love about Krux is that it runs on Maix Amigo hardware.  The Amigo is a device with a 3.5 inch touchscreen, a camera for reading QR codes, and a battery.  So it's fully airgapped once you load Krux software onto it.  It has a micro SD card slot, but using that is optional.  I prefer using RQ codes.  It also has usb, but after you've installed Krux on the device, the usb is only needed to charge the battery, so you can plug it into an electric outlet instead of a desktop.

After the mess with Ledger, I decided to go DIY and it's been surprisingly easy.  For Bitcoin, solutions like SeedSigner and Krux are fantastic.  And since the Maix Amigo is a device intended for DIY projects that usually have nothing to do with crypto, when you buy one, you don't end up on somebody's crypto mailing list, y'know?

Krux is free and fully open source.  SeedSigner is too.

I have 2 ledger nano s plus, and use ledger + trezor to generate a multi-signature wallet. Then these ledgers do not need to be discarded.