Private keys and the Ledger Nano S - Am I Transacting with the Block-chain or an intermediary?

Hey guys,

I am a bit of a newb and trying to get my head around a few things, specifically security using the Ledger Nano S. I want to understand how private keys work on the blockchain in relation to a hardware wallet such as the Ledger Nano S.


So here is my thought experiment using ADA Cardano as an example.


1) My ADA ‘coins’ reside on Binance and I don’t have the private keys. Therefore I don’t really own those coins. They are held on my behalf by Binance. In theory Binance could cease operations due to regulation, corruption, war, whatever and that is the last I could see of my assets.

2) I Install a desktop wallet, let's say Yoroi for Cardano. I understand that i do not create a 'seed' or private key to be held locally by that specific install on my PC, as using the Ledger device, it translates my private key (which is encrypted and held on the device) and communicates with the blockchain via Yoroi.

Therefore the Yoroi wallet install on my PC is not a great concern, I don’t need to back it up right? I could just re-install Yoroi, or install on another PC and still access my coins using the ledger?

3) I send my coins from Binance to my public wallet address, created in Yoroi, verified with Ledger.

Once confirmed I could uninstall Yoroi and forget about it? Six months later, re-install Yoroi on another computer, plug in my Ledger and see all of my transaction history?

So Ledger interacts with Yoroi, Yoroi interacts with the Cardano Blockchain?

What happens if development stops on Yoroi? What about if Daedalus offers support for Ledger – could I just install and set that up, plug in my Ledger and see my stash of coins?

I think what I am getting at and trying to understand is how important is the wallet itself if secured by Ledger. If I secure by Ledger am I communicating directly with the blockchain or an intermediary?


Thanks in advance!