Ledger no longer supports nano s. Tokens gone?

[WeThePe0ple]

A friend of mine is a BTC whale. We have never met in person as he freaks out about privacy. We just talk on social media with nicknames.
I do respect his knowledge about self custody and safety.

The man had about 1% of his portfolio (representing a lot of money) allocated to a top 20 altcoin.
It was stored via ledger nano s.

At some point he updated ledger live (browser extension?) and it turns out that his token is no longer supported by ledger nano s.
It had to do with ledger nano s being too old.

He now believes that access to these tokens, representing an amount of money that most people have to work 1 year for, is permanently lost.

Is this possible? Does Ledger take any accountability for their older wallets no longer working for certain altcoins?
Why is there no policy that legally forces ledger to warn their customers at least 1 year before support stops?

To me this is like the bank calling me and saying that my funds are missing because their software is outdated.
I would sue the bank and demand my money back.

When I heard this, I wondered how safe my own tokens in coldstorage really are.
I am not using Ledger though, but an airgapped hardware wallet mainly for BTC and XRP.
I don't know if this could ever happen to me if I don't use the wallet for the next few years.

[Charles-Tim]

Just click on move topic at the lower left corner beside lock topic to move it to hardware wallet board.

To get the best answer, move this topic to hardware wallet board. This is the board: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=261.0

There are wallets that you should be able to connect to the hardware wallet that support the coin and tokens that you are referring to. Wallet like Electrum for bitcoin and Metamask for altcoins.

[satscraper]

At some point he updated ledger live (browser extension?) and it turns out that his token is no longer supported by ledger nano s.
It had to do with ledger nano s being too old.


Is this possible?

Yeah, it is possible. Tokens are evolving through various mechanisms, such as changes in their smart contracts, adjustments to their parameters via governance procedures, hard forks with protocol updates  ^{ADA is a prominent example here}, etc... As the result, relevant apps are also evolving, which is why the limited memory of the Ledger Nano S can’t accommodate these changes.  

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He now believes that access to these tokens, representing an amount of money that most people have to work 1 year for, is permanently lost.

Is this possible?

Nope, it's highly unlikely. He has several options. He can buy one of latest models of Ledger and install updated app, or he can switch to different wallet. That said, tell him not to panic, as his funds are controlled by private keys derived fromt his SEED, rather than by his device or app.

[SFR10]

Does Ledger take any accountability for their older wallets no longer working for certain altcoins?
Why is there no policy that legally forces ledger to warn their customers at least 1 year before support stops?

I'm not sure if there is any policy that requires them to warn their users a year before stopping support for a certain device or not, but they did warn their users a few months back ^{[archived version of their news section on the 30th of June]} and towards the end of the page, they also mentioned developers of those apps will be responsible for potential damages.
^{- FWIW, Nano S's EOL was in June 2022.}

[Lucius]

A friend of mine is a BTC whale. We have never met in person as he freaks out about privacy. We just talk on social media with nicknames.
I do respect his knowledge about self custody and safety.
The man had about 1% of his portfolio (representing a lot of money) allocated to a top 20 altcoin.
It was stored via ledger nano s.
~snip~

To me, he doesn't seem like a person who is well versed in how things work, especially if we take into account the bad reputation that Ledger has earned over the years and the fact that he uses an outdated and therefore very limited device. To make matters worse, this same device is very likely doing much more in its communication with the Ledger servers than we thought a few years ago.

When I heard this, I wondered how safe my own tokens in coldstorage really are.
I am not using Ledger though, but an airgapped hardware wallet mainly for BTC and XRP.
I don't know if this could ever happen to me if I don't use the wallet for the next few years.

If you're using an air-gapped device, then you're already on a completely different level of security than your friend, and therefore he should learn something from you, not the other way around. When it comes to what may happen in the future, always expect the unexpected, and always try to stay up to date with everything that is happening so you can anticipate a possible problem.

[PrivacyG]

The Cryptocurrencies he owns are stored on the SEED of his Nano S.  Not on the Nano S itself.  Your friend should know this considering he followed the initial instructions of his Hardware Wallet where he had to write down his back up Seed.

But.  Nano S becoming 'retired' would have not been a problem IF Ledger did not decide to play with fire around the Seed and offer Cloud storage for the Seed and all that B S.  And then the second thing to consider is the security of the device.  If there is any exploit found then the device will become vulnerable because it will not receive any update any more.  The solution would be to purchase a newer Ledger device or to move the Cryptocurrencies to another Wallet instead.

[dkbit98]

Is this possible? Does Ledger take any accountability for their older wallets no longer working for certain altcoins?

Ledger don't care at all about their customers, and they have biggest graveyard of deprecated old devices that can't be used anymore.
Holding most shitcoins on hardware wallets is like holding rotten bananas in safe deposit, you can't expect them to stay alive long term.
Your friend can always import keys to other wallets and use those shitcoins.

Why is there no policy that legally forces ledger to warn their customers at least 1 year before support stops?

Give me a break... nobody cares about random shitcoins and their support for hardware wallets.