Ledger Nano S hardware wallet was first released in 2016 and it's arguably still one of the most popular hardware wallets in the world with millions of sold devices.

I will post here my reasons why I wouldn't buy this device again, and I will post ways how you can try to fix some of the Nano S problems (if possible).

1. Closed Source
Ledger Nano S is closed source device with no intention to change that in future, that means it could potentially store hidden backdoor for years.
Firmware updates are often causing more problems and only few closed circle of people is working on it.
There are even cases when updating devices with new firmware simply breaks the device and makes it unusable.

How to Fix this? Switch to other open source hardware wallets, or ask Ledger developers to release their code.



2. Small Memory
Memory for Ledger Nano S is very small with around 144kb 138Kb, but even bigger problem is that size of apps for coins is growing all the time and memory stays the same.
With recent 2.0.0 update size of Bitcoin app has grown from 40kb to 64kb, that means you can support less coins on your device at the same time.
Developers now claim this is only temporary but I don't believe them because it's getting bigger constantly.

How to Fix this? Uninstall apps that you don't use on regular basis, or use only Bitcoin app.



3. Display dies after few years
Ledger Nano S is using cheap OLED display that will die or start to dim usually after few years even if you don't use device so often.

How to Fix this? Easiest way to prolong life of your display is to change and reduce brightness in settings and keep device in dry place.
If you already have faulty display you can order new cheap display online or locally and replace it yourself following this video instructions.
Make sure you are purchasing this display with 12 PIN connector.
Some people are even using smartphone cameras to see characters on dim display.
Last and most expensive option is to buy new hardware wallet and import your seed words.



4. Cheap plastic body
Nano S is made from cheap plastic that gets broken easily if you hold it stronger when removing USB cable.

How to Fix this? You can try to superglue the plastic, but you should be extra careful when handling and removing cable.
Maybe it's possible to make custom 3d printed case or order it online from other people, but I couldn't find one myself.



5. Nano S could soon be discontinued
Ledger have a history of defunct and discontinued products like Ledger HW.1, Ledger Nano, Ledger Unplugged and Ledger Blue.
One more thing is that Nano S is using old Micro-USB to USB Type-A cable, and most of devices switched to USB Type-C.

How to Fix this? Simple. Don't buy Ledger Nano S.



6. Bad Multisig support
Ledger is probably one of the worst hardware wallets you can use for your multisig setup.
You can't display own or cosigner xpub on demand, it's not showing Electrum Zpub and Ypub formats, xpubs are not registered inside the device, and ledger is not
showing multisig receive address for verification, it always assumes that cosigners are trustworthy.

How to Fix this? Use other wallets for your multisig setup and avoid Ledger and Trezor for this purpose.

7. Leaking personal information
Ledger leaked personal information for millions of their customers leaking everything including full names, address and phone numbers.

How to Fix this? Buy in local reseller or use PO boxes when ordering your device.

8. Bad support
Ledger has one of the worst support I ever saw, that is very slow and they probably have small stuff so there is really no fix for this, except if they hire more people.

---

Price of Nano S is currently around 60€ (+shipping) and that is not a lot today but considering all I mentioned above I don't think it's worth the money.
It's still a better option that Nano X epic fail with battery issues, and probably better option than keeping coins on hot wallet.

Are there any alternative hardware wallets? Yes there are, but you need to pay a bit more money and get better quality and open source device.
Do your own research.

That is bad to see and I hope their license plate was recorded, but it can get much worse like in United States now.
People are mass robbing stores in broad daylight and nobody including security guards is doing anything to stop them, people just watch-record this with their phones, and police usually comes to late.
I am not sure how much cash is stored in those BTMs but I think it's much less than in regular ATMs that are probably refilled every day.
Stats are showing that number of BTMs is constantly rising worldwide, Bitcoin is getting more popular in msm, and that leads to rise of crime related with BTMs.

Most trouble is created when people want to act smart and create their own system with replacing words or if they split seed words with their own system, or if they really to much on their memory.
If they talk and brag a lot how they own Bitcoin can get them in big trouble also.

It all depends what hardware wallet you lose, some of them can be hacked with proper tools and skills (Terzor, Keepkey...) and seed words ca be extracted.
Losing hardware wallet with secure element will be harder for them to hack, but impossible especially if wallet is closed source with potentially hidden backdoors.
Person that lose hardware wallet should just in case import seed words in different cold wallet and move all funds to new address

Losing a seed words is much worse than losing a hardware wallet, and I would strongly suggest importing them to new wallet and sending to other address that you control asap.
Using 25th words or passphrase would also be a good idea, but keep it separate from seed words.

Bitcoin can have multiple use cases (using second layer and sidechains) and it's not a one trick pony.
Stable coins like USDT and all others are not really decentralized and they can be frozen by central authority, and it's question if they are backed by any fiat money in banks.
There is nothing really stable with stable coins or fiat currencies especially if they are not backed by anything, except maybe with military power and atomic bombs.
Ask citizens of Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Yugoslavia and all other countries that had hyperinflation in history how ''good'' and stable their fiat currency was, and if they were happy when all their saving was gone along with their buying power.

I never used Coinbene exchange but funny thing is they are claiming to be operating from Singapore, place often used for many companies that are actually from China.
Interesting thing is that first office for Coinbene exchange was set up in HongKong back in 2017 (year when exchange was founded) and Singapore office in December of 2019 (archive)
Even worse is the fact that they didn't post anything about this on their social media and twitter account that is inactive since October.

''Bigtoin'' je samo još jedna sprdnja i foliranje političara koji se pretvaraju da ne znaju ništa o tome, a mogu to iskoristiti za novo poskupljenje struje i za sve okriviti ljude koji rudare kriptovalute.
Moram priznati da Indexovci sve bolje i bolje prate Bitcoin novosti i globalno a i u regionu

Douglas Bakkum recently wrote an article for BitBox blog claiming that airgap is not really making hardware wallets more secure and it's only complicating them.
It's not surprising to hear this from inventor of BitBox wallet if we know that device is not airgapped, but it's interesting to read his opinion and conclusion.
He first started with myth of unbeatable airgap security, but wait a minute, nobody said that airgap is perfect and unbeatable.
Then he said that Micro-SD cards are mini computers with firmware that can be hacked, something I never heard happening but I guess it's possible in theory, however not all h-wallets are using SD cards, there is also QR codes.
Source articel: https://shiftcrypto.ch/blog/does-airgap-make-bitcoin-hardware-wallets-more-secure/

I personally won't agree with Douglas opinion, removing USB connection means less attack surface,
and in reply to BitBox blog with claims and conclusion we have interesting David Bakin blog, that explains it much better than me:
https://bakins-bits.dev/dev/2021/11/airgapped-hardware-wallets-and-fud-1/

Software wallets for Bitcoin are all free so you don't have to invest anything in them, and using something like Electrum or Wasabi wallet with offline computer would be a good start for cold storage.
I would only recommend using open source wallets that are tested  and always verify if you are downloading them from official website with correct signature.
Cold wallets are used for storing keys for larger amount of coins, and hot wallets can be used for pocket money and smaller payments.

If you want to invest and buy some hardware wallet, check out my list of Open Source Hardware Wallets and Secure Element in Hardware Wallets.
Remember that you are not storing coins on your device but just your keys, so it's important to make good backup for seed words and store them in safe place on paper or metal plate.
Prices for hardware wallets start from $40 but I would stay away from any that is closed source, and I would consider Trezor One wallet (with passphrase), BitBox02 or Keystone wallet, and avoid buying Ledger Nano X (many issues with battery, firmware, etc)

Latest ''revolutionary'' change from youtube - they are removing public dislikes count to ''protect'' smaller creators   this just sounds like one more way to hide the truth, and I don't understand why dislike button even exist from now on.
Oh but on positive note, at least we won't have any (public) dislikes on out bitcointalk youtube channels from all the haters...

One suggestion for possible intro video that helps users how to register on bitcointalk forum, but we should include some info for evil fees.
I found one decent video from 2019:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT5HPhO2MA8

I don't think we need more fake decentralized projects like we have now with bunch of altcoins, and moving that shit to bitcoin ecosystem makes no sense to me.
Sidechain and other layers for Bitcoin might be a good idea that could in theory kill the need for using any other coins, and using them for privacy and scalability would be a great use case.
Jameson Lopp has a nice list of resources for this on his website:
https://www.lopp.net/bitcoin-information/other-layers.html

I don't know when Greta Thunberg became supreme ruler of Sweden but this hypocrisy with climate change is getting out of control.
All this politicians and their leaders like Michael Bloomberg are all traveling with many of their private jets and helicopters, they drive multiple cars, have multiple houses and real estate ownership,
but they are telling regular people should stop driving cars, and we should all stop bitcoin mining because it's boiling the oceans (not), so they propose more bans and tyranny.
In the end, I would not be surprised if some EU countries continue going the road like their role model communist China did, but I doubt it will happen in all member countries.

I noticed some issues with Mercury wallet not shutting down properly and it keeps running in background, then after I shut it down it down manually I am unable to start it back again (server, swap and bitcoin are not connecting) until I restart my computer.
Other small bugs I noticed with dark theme not showing any text on some buttons, or each time I start wallet again it turns back to light mode.

I understand that but like I said Mercury is still beta phase and currently there isn't any volume for swaps except medium amount for smallest statecoin value.
Maybe you could introduce voluntary fee donation and create some campaign to increase liquidity.
If I understand correctly, you are also making a web explorer for statecoins and all transactions will be public for anyone to see, is that correct?

This future project would be unrelated with Mercury wallet or what?

No I don't know, and I don't have Macbook to test aynthing, but they claim they will eventually support optional Electrum Personal Server, C-Lightning, Esplora, and BTCPay Server.
They even have open source iOS GordianWallet with other Gordian products and I think they are working on some Bitcoin-based Decentralized Identifiers project.
This is github page for Torgap they are using for Gordian Server:
https://github.com/BlockchainCommons/torgap/

Yeah sure but I think that GordianServer comes with a package of other tools like Torgap, and yes you could argue that Tor can be installed separately on Mac.
Are you or anyone else runs a node on Mac now?

Novi film Decrypted (2021) koji za temu ima Bitcoin tvorca - Satoshi Nakamoto.
Gledao sam samo trailer i mislim da je ovo još jedna glupa low budget komedija ali je dobro da se počelo sa snimanjem filmova na temu Satoshi.

This is totally fucked up shit, banning DT forum member who contributed a lot during all this years, he could be pissed even more with this, and we could potentially lose him forever because of this decision made by one moderator.

I understand nutildah was being stubborn but he doesn't deserve to be temp-banned, and I think that most DT members would agree with me on this (we can even vote on this subject).

Bring back nutildah, and let's hear what theymos has to say about this case.

It's easy for anyone to create new topic with same content, and mods are not immaculate creatures.
I can also put same topic in multiple threads depending on different point of view and interpretations.

Are you part of Mercury developer team or associated with their team in any way?
Some people here are allergic to Newbie members, so I think that some small explanation would be nice from you.

There are mixing services that don't charge any fees, and I think that you should consider lowering your fees during beta phase and increase them later.
I would also like to see some code audit and reviews from other security experts.

Hey nicosey, one suggestion for future, please try to write your answers in one post, not in multiple consecutive posts (that is against forum rules).
Thanks in advance.

I am not a big fan of Mac computers but if you have some old Mac lying around and collecting dust, you can also use it to run full Bitcoin node using GordianServer.

GordianServer (previously known as Bitcoin-Standup-macOS) is opens source project made by Peter Denton and Christopher Allen, that enables you to run Bitcoin Core full node on your computer or VPS with all privacy tools like Tor.

This provides easy one-click solution for installing full Bitcoin Core server with nice UI and QR codes connecting full node with other devices, remote desktop and mobile phones.

With full node you are going to have the benefit of better privacy, you will be able to validate your own transactions, and you can carry you portable Macbook with full BTC node anywhere in the world if there is active internet connection.

Requirements:

- macOS 10.15.7 Catalina or better (or try using Catalina Patcher)
~ 400 GB of free space for a downloading full blockchain (or much less for pruned version)

Installation instructions and all other  information can be found on GordianServer github page, and you can check signatures and checksums before downloading anything:
https://github.com/BlockchainCommons/GordianServer-macOS

I think most people are running Bitcoin nodes on Linux OS, however GordianServer is interesting alternative to try on Mac but some bugs are expected in early versions.

Yes I did ask them that and they didn't delete your betting history, like AntillesPhone N.V. confirmed, they just canceled your duplicate/similar bets and returned your coins.
I also asked you several questions, and after that you edited and changed your answers several times, that can all be seen and confirmed in archived posts.

My final conclusion, and I am not going to post anything else in this topic: You tried to game the system and you failed, deal with it and move on.

There is already a discussion topic about Mercury wallet I created few months ago, so better post that information there instead of creating new topic.
You can also ask the devs to answer some questions other forum members asked:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5334221.0