How long is the lifespan of the hardware wallet?

[socks435]

Just found article about USB flash drive from google and they have expectancy how long USB flash drive can be use as normal.

Code:

The life expectancy of a USB Flash Drive can be measured by the number of write or erase cycles. USB flash drives can withstand between 10,000 to 100,000 write/erase cycles, depending on the memory technology used.

So, I would like to know how long is the lifespan of hardware wallet like Ledger nano s and Trezor?

[1714941809]

1714941809

[Lucius]

We had a similar question some two weeks ago, and by what can be read there, Ledger Nano S lifespan should be around 30 years or 500.000 write cycles. So it depends of quality of production or material that is used, but also how it is used - some users are quite negligent with their devices.

This Trezor One Metalic is made from anodized aluminum, so that from that side probably can withstand a lot more than 30 years.

Read more : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5108137.0

[socks435]

According to your link the lifespan is around 30 years?
And it seems that the lifespan of hardware wallet depends on how you use it? So we use this hardware for a longer time on laptop or PC the life of this wallet can be reduce in half of 30 years if ever we use this without removing it from PC or laptop?

I have USB 16gb that I used as booster to speed the windows PC but after 1 and half years when transferring a file with this USB drive the result of the files always corrupted so it can be also happen to hardware wallet?

[Lucius]

I think Ledger or Trezor are using a bit better component then some regular USB stick, especially if it is from a less reputable manufacturer. If you visit posted Reddit link in that other thread, one user post info :

The Ledger Nano has an industry standard chip on-board that's also used in the banking world. They should last about 30 years when used on a regular basis.

I am not sure how not removing HW from PC would affect lifespan from 30 to 15 years, maybe only if you keep your PC on all the time, and HW is all the time turned on.

But as many point out, keeping your seed safe is more important then how long will HW last. Manufacturers like Ledger or Trezor will create at least 2-3 new models in next 10 years, and Nano S will be replaced with Nano X or some new model.

[mk4]

Regardless if you actually frequently use your hardware wallet or not, even though if it's just locked up somewhere, it will still deteriorate, just as most electronics. Because of multiple things like moisture and such, that could potentially be huge factors in rendering your hardware wallet useless sometime in the future.

Anyway, people don't purchase and use hardware wallets for lifetime storage anyway. You have paper and or steel sheets for that purpose. People buy hardware wallets to be able to send funds with minimum risk of exposing the private keys.

[arbiter5]

The hardware wallet's lifetime doesn't matter. As long as my Ledger Nano S survives for 10 years minimum, then I'm good. I'm pretty sure in a decade from now most existing hardware wallets are going to be obsolete anyway. They weren't made to survive lifetimes in the first place.

[socks435]

Regardless if you actually frequently use your hardware wallet or not, even though if it's just locked up somewhere, it will still deteriorate, just as most electronics. Because of multiple things like moisture and such, that could potentially be huge factors in rendering your hardware wallet useless sometime in the future.

Anyway, people don't purchase and use hardware wallets for lifetime storage anyway. You have paper and or steel sheets for that purpose. People buy hardware wallets to be able to send funds with minimum risk of exposing the private keys.

That's another problem because we have unstable weather condition here in my country that sometimes the weather condition is very hot and sometimes it's very cold. So I'm sure that this hardware wallet won't survive if we are living on cold places because it may lead to hardware issue.

Yeah exactly that the hardware wallet only use for everyday use not for lifetime storage, most people here treat hardware wallet as a lifetime storage of the coins and hold their coins for a long long time as what I see from other forum members here. They mostly recommend this wallet to hold coins for a long time.
Everything in the world has limitation. That is why I created this thread because of this to clear my doubt.

The hardware wallet's lifetime doesn't matter. As long as my Ledger Nano S survives for 10 years minimum, then I'm good. I'm pretty sure in a decade from now most existing hardware wallets are going to be obsolete anyway. They weren't made to survive lifetimes in the first place.

Well, even the hardware survive for how many years I'm sure there will be another new developed wallet will release in this coming years that much secured than hardware wallet.

The only important here in crypto is that always keep your seed secret and safe.

[mk4]

Yeah exactly that the hardware wallet only use for everyday use not for lifetime storage, most people here treat hardware wallet as a lifetime storage of the coins and hold their coins for a long long time as what I see from other forum members here.

Yep. But not because you have a hardware wallet it doesn't mean you should backup the recovery seed. Like most people said, the hardware wallet can be damaged. I think I have seen a few posts on Reddit in the past about people messing up their hardware wallet while doing an update; with them losing their funds because they didn't do a proper recovery seed backup.

[LeGaulois]

In the future getting a Ledger Nano S will be like having a Nokia 3310.

@OP
The quote you posted is based on data old from 2008. What is the difference between SLC and MLC? I am sure today even the cheap that you buy at the gas station can do a lot more than 10k I/O.
In 10 years the tech improved with the wear leveling method

Wear leveling (also written as wear levelling) is a technique[1] for prolonging the service life of some kinds of erasable computer storage media, such as flash memory, which is used in solid-state drives (SSDs) and USB flash drives, and phase-change memory. There are several wear leveling mechanisms that provide varying levels of longevity enhancement in such memory systems.[2][3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wear_leveling

[gentlemand]

The lifespan of the hardware is not relevant to me at least. There'll be more secure and easier to use options as time passes. In ten years a Ledger will feel painfully clunky, in fact it does right now. The only important thing is your seed and that's never going to degrade.

The software used to access the wallet may well be unusable long, long before the actual chip and memory is. You may have to dig out some ancient download site to find it by which point it may be hopelessly insecure.

[vapourminer]

trezor after fire and water damage. still worked iirc.

https://imgur.com/gallery/Z2eUs

i know theres a post on reddit about it, search "veterinarian house fire trezor" this was not me btw.

but the main takeaway: KEEP SEED WORDS SAFE. several places, at least one completely off site.

i transfer funds from old to new hardware wallets (or same hardware wallet with new seed) every so often. and until the new seed for the wallet is redundantly, securely safe i am paranoid of funds being lost via loss of device, disaster or device failure with no access to the seeds (seed loss is maybe due to stupidity/fire/cant remember where they are kept etc)

another takeaway: VERIFY THE SEEDS and DO A DRY RECOVERY RUN on the device. you need to be absolutely sure you can recover via seed, so practice the procedure.

EDIT: i have one of the early trezors, from 2013 i think. still works fine. and im not gentle with it. YMMV