My dad got a Ledger from Best Buy....

[tread93]

My dad recently told me he finally got a ledger but not from where I told him to get it from 😅. After speaking with him about the current conditions in the market that he is well aware of I explained to him that even with a major retailer like Best Buy it’s not wise to take ANY chances. He’s returning it and ordering directly from the manufacturer Ledger in Paris now. Can anyone else please confirm my hesitation with the Best Buy purchase? At this point, it’s not worth betting on even a major retailer as we all know they can fail immensely, just like any company could. But who knows, how can you trust anyone? How can ledger not even be questioned? They have in the past but have continued to be one of the best cold storage hardware wallets. Recently the old micro 5 bit Nano S option isn’t even available on their site anymore. He also went with the bluetooth ledger one, which I also told him was much less secure. But it appears that they changed them all. Can someone tell me what is the currently the ledger wallet that is most secure? If not Ledger then what is the best cold storage wallet in your opinion & what facts do you have to back that up?

Hope everyone is doing great! Looking forward to seeing your response. Have a nice night.

Cheers,

TREAD

[1714640561]

1714640561

[adzino]

My dad recently told me he finally got a ledger but not from where I told him to get it from 😅. After speaking with him about the current conditions in the market that he is well aware of I explained to him that even with a major retailer like Best Buy it’s not wise to take ANY chances. He’s returning it and ordering directly from the manufacturer Ledger in Paris now. Can anyone else please confirm my hesitation with the Best Buy purchase? At this point, it’s not worth betting on even a major retailer as we all know they can fail immensely, just like any company could. But who knows, how can you trust anyone? How can ledger not even be questioned? They have in the past but have continued to be one of the best cold storage hardware wallets. Recently the old micro 5 bit Nano S option isn’t even available on their site anymore. He also went with the bluetooth ledger one, which I also told him was much less secure. But it appears that they changed them all. Can someone tell me what is the currently the ledger wallet that is most secure? If not Ledger then what is the best cold storage wallet in your opinion & what facts do you have to back that up?

Hope everyone is doing great! Looking forward to seeing your response. Have a nice night.

Cheers,

TREAD

As far as I know they have physical security chip that helps you know the authenticity of the device. You can verify if the device is legit and if it has been tampered with or not. But still, since you will be holding your savings/investment, why take the risk or losing everything? Tell your dad to return it and order directly from the manufacturer. Might be few bucks for costly, but still worth buying from them. At least your dad won't be worried, paranoid and lose his sleep over the device.

[Upgrade00]

Can anyone else please confirm my hesitation with the Best Buy purchase?

Yes, your hesitation is appropriate.
Best Buy allows third party purchases and anyone can try to sell an item of theirs through the platform, this makes it possible for someone to sell a flawed device or one with a set of preset keys which can allow them possibly steal funds which are sent to it, if the user does not wipe the device first.

But who knows, how can you trust anyone? How can ledger not even be questioned? They have in the past but have continued to be one of the best cold storage hardware wallets. Recently the old micro 5 bit Nano S option isn’t even available on their site anymore. He also went with the bluetooth ledger one, which I also told him was much less secure. But it appears that they changed them all. Can someone tell me what is the currently the ledger wallet that is most secure? If not Ledger then what is the best cold storage wallet in your opinion & what facts do you have to back that up?

Ledger should infact be questioned. In crypto, you do not trust you verify.
• Question how their products are closed source and it is impossible for buyers to verify the code which it runs on, leaving risks for hacks,
• Also question the durability of their products.

I personally don't use ledger and refrain from suggesting a hardware wallet to use, as it's a delicate business.
Do your own research based on what you prioritize in a hardware wallet and make your decision.

I think ledger wallet is for those people have larger money I mean from 100k dollars plus value.

With a Bitcoin holding worth $1k, buying a hardware wallet is a shrewd decision, considering how much they are worth relative to it. If you go as high as $5k, then it becomes a necessity.

[m2017]

It seems to me that your dad did the right thing by returning the purchase back to the reseller. It is better to buy directly from the seller to be 100% sure that you have an original device. In this case, even minimal doubts can do harm if they are justified. Technically, ledger is still a safe place to store crypto, but the firm's reputation has been called into question several times due to lost user data leaked to the network. For many, this is a reason to buy trezor instead of ledger, which is not inferior in terms of reliability and by now has a better reputation.

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

After speaking with him about the current conditions in the market that he is well aware of I explained to him that even with a major retailer like Best Buy it’s not wise to take ANY chances. He’s returning it and ordering directly from the manufacturer Ledger in Paris now.

It's not all about returning it that matters but buying a hardware wallet from a decentralized source that will not by any chance demand you to fill in form for KYC, many have gone extremely wrong by making this mistake, they buy their hardware wallet from a centralized retail that got their information with them which is to an extent a shortfall in securing one, because hardware wallet was intended to keep you private and secured while some retail source violate this and demand your kyc, be vigilant.

[franky1]

i can to a point understand the topic creators fears.
thinking an employee of bestbuy is sneaking a look inside the packaging to reprogram a ledger to a bad random generator where it, when functioning creates a key the employee designed it to create. rather than random..

but then again so could the postman/courier sending out devices direct to customers.

so that fear can be taken with a pinch of salt (or lack of). and taken with less tinfoil hear dress fear

the best solution is to use your own chosen words. create your own unique key. and only put value onto your key. not one generated by a piece of software.

importing your own wallet into a hardware wallet is better than using a wallet the device/software chose for you


the biggest fear of hardware wallets is where hardware wallets use webbrowsers as the GUI where by things like web extensions and phishing sites can scam/con people into typing their seed into the scammers control

[Rikafip]

My dad recently told me he finally got a ledger but not from where I told him to get it from 😅. After speaking with him about the current conditions in the market that he is well aware of I explained to him that even with a major retailer like Best Buy it’s not wise to take ANY chances. He’s returning it and ordering directly from the manufacturer Ledger in Paris now. Can anyone else please confirm my hesitation with the Best Buy purchase?

I had the same worry when I was buying my Ledger, and decided to order it directly from manufacturer and guess what happened? Ledger data got leaked and my email (luckily just that, it could have been worse) ended up being spammed with bunch of scam mails. My point is, there is always a chance that you get screwed when ordering something like hardware wallet so even if ordering directly from them, try to order to one of those mailbox services so even in case of data leak hackers don't get your name.

Can someone tell me what is the currently the ledger wallet that is most secure? If not Ledger then what is the best cold storage wallet in your opinion & what facts do you have to back that up?

I can't really tell you that as there are hundreds of devices on the market, but you might wanna check this topic (it is in Croatian, but you can use Google translate). Personally, if my Ledger Nano S stopped working, I would probably buy again Ledger just because I got used to it and I don't like the change.

[mk4]

That's good that now people are learning and the are doing good decision. I think ledger wallet is for those people have larger money I mean from 100k dollars plus value. Cause when they need their money they can make Transaction, unless their wallet is safe and their money is safe too. But regarding your dad can I ask for what purpose he bought Ledger wallet.

A Ledger Nano S Plus is just $90. If you're a long-term investor, that purchase should be a total no-brainer. Why use a hardware wallet just when you already have $100k? Heck, I purchased my first hardware wallet when I had like $2000.

[Hispo]

That's good that now people are learning and the are doing good decision. I think ledger wallet is for those people have larger money I mean from 100k dollars plus value. Cause when they need their money they can make Transaction, unless their wallet is safe and their money is safe too. But regarding your dad can I ask for what purpose he bought Ledger wallet.

A Ledger Nano S Plus is just $90. If you're a long-term investor, that purchase should be a total no-brainer. Why use a hardware wallet just when you already have $100k? Heck, I purchased my first hardware wallet when I had like $2000.

In my opinion hardware wallets are for those who simply want to store their keys in a safer way, regardless of the amount of money they have.
Since both Trezor and Ledger allow to interact with smart contracts, digitally sign messages, ect; one could even argue there is a reason why someone out there would buy a HW while having 0$ of holdings at the moment of the purchase. 

[mendace]

My dad recently told me he finally got a ledger but not from where I told him to get it from 😅. After speaking with him about the current conditions in the market that he is well aware of I explained to him that even with a major retailer like Best Buy it’s not wise to take ANY chances. He’s returning it and ordering directly from the manufacturer Ledger in Paris now. Can anyone else please confirm my hesitation with the Best Buy purchase? At this point, it’s not worth betting on even a major retailer as we all know they can fail immensely, just like any company could. But who knows, how can you trust anyone? How can ledger not even be questioned? They have in the past but have continued to be one of the best cold storage hardware wallets. Recently the old micro 5 bit Nano S option isn’t even available on their site anymore. He also went with the bluetooth ledger one, which I also told him was much less secure. But it appears that they changed them all. Can someone tell me what is the currently the ledger wallet that is most secure? If not Ledger then what is the best cold storage wallet in your opinion & what facts do you have to back that up?

Hope everyone is doing great! Looking forward to seeing your response. Have a nice night.

Cheers,

TREAD

Currently the best hardware wallet I think is Coldcard by coinkite, it's Airgapped and open source and this makes it the best around in my opinion.  However, I must emphasize that it is not an instrument suitable for everyone and can be difficult for beginners.  So I have in store for you the second best hardware wallet that anyone can use.  Bitbox02 bitcoin only edition, this is a fantastic piece of hardware that stores your private key offline on a micro SD that you can store wherever you see fit.

Ledger nano is also a good wallet but don't use it with ledger live that can be risky for privacy rather use it with electrum.

[virasog]

My dad recently told me he finally got a ledger but not from where I told him to get it from 😅. After speaking with him about the current conditions in the market that he is well aware of I explained to him that even with a major retailer like Best Buy it’s not wise to take ANY chances.

It's better to buy a hardware wallet from an official website but even if you have bought from best buy or any third party marketplace, if you can reset the device, the passphrase can be reset too and the device will be safe to use. Isn't ?

A Ledger Nano S Plus is just $90. If you're a long-term investor, that purchase should be a total no-brainer. Why use a hardware wallet just when you already have $100k? Heck, I purchased my first hardware wallet when I had like $2000.

Every penny is important so if you want your bitcoin to be safe, you should buy a hard wallet irrespective of whether you have a million dollars or a mere 1000 dollars.

[Beparanf]

My dad recently told me he finally got a ledger but not from where I told him to get it from 😅. After speaking with him about the current conditions in the market that he is well aware of I explained to him that even with a major retailer like Best Buy it’s not wise to take ANY chances.

It's better to buy a hardware wallet from an official website but even if you have bought from best buy or any third party marketplace, if you can reset the device, the passphrase can be reset too and the device will be safe to use. Isn't ?

Trezor has no recovery seed phrase when you purchase. You are the one who will generate it when you open the device for the first time so resetting it right after you purchase is still useless if the inside of the hardware wallet chip is rigged. Hacker can put a program on hardware wallet that shares your recovery seed phrase once you connect in the internet. This is the danger that you can get on buying to 3rd party because you can’t check the inside of you device.

The sticker seal of the box can be counterfeit too so buying directly on manufacturer is the best thing to do if you are using it as life savings storage.

[Pmalek]

Currently the best hardware wallet I think is Coldcard by coinkite, it's Airgapped and open source and this makes it the best around in my opinion.

A small correction: the Coldcard is based on open-source code but the final product does not come with an open-source license. That means, you are not allowed to modify or redistribute Coldcard code. You also can't use their code to create your own hardware wallet. The codebase is verifiable though, and that should be the point you should focus on if that's something that is important to you.

@tread93
A few things about the Ledger.

- You have ways to check and ensure that the software and hardware of a Ledger is genuine. For instructions on how to do that, you go to the official website or read this support document.
- Only a genuine Ledger HW can connect to Ledger Live (the native app for your hardware wallet) servers. The fake ones can't.
- You can also physically open the device and check the hardware inside, but you should know that by doing that, you void the warranty. This is the link with instructions if you want to do that.   
- When you first turn on your Ledger HW, it's supposed to display a welcome message of some sorts. I am not sure what exactly it says now. "Hi Ledger", "Welcome to Ledger", or the screen simply displays the ledger logo. Keep an eye on that. It only happens during the onboarding process and the first time the device is turned on. If it doesn't, you aren't the first one who has turned it on.
 
To sum up.
Never use a HW with preinstalled seed. Confirm everything with the information available on the official site. Download software only from the official site, not based on instructions given to you elsewhere. Verify if your device is genuine before using it. Stop and ask questions if you are in doubt, like you did with this thread. Ask the Ledger support or people on this forum if something is not clear.

[dkbit98]

Can someone tell me what is the currently the ledger wallet that is most secure? If not Ledger then what is the best cold storage wallet in your opinion & what facts do you have to back that up?

Ledger is NOT the most secure hardware wallet, it's closed source and they had many security leaks in past.
I think that you and your father just wasted time and made you even more exposed after returning devices you already purchased in best buy, and then ordering online with your private information.
Not sure what you wanted to achieve with this exactly, and now you are asking for other hardware wallets...
There are much better open source hardware wallets , like Passport, Keystone, BitBox or Trezor.

It's not all about returning it that matters but buying a hardware wallet from a decentralized source

There is no such thing as ''decentralized source'' for purchasing stuff...

[ChiBitCTy]

Hey long time no talk    You're absolutely right, only buy directly from the maker, period.  Also, the two best hardware wallets, imo hands down, Trezor and CoinKite ColdCard.

[DireWolfM14]

Honestly, if I was to buy a Ledger I think it's safer to buy it from a local retail store where I can pay in cash.  Ledger has had at least a couple of data breaches that exposed their customers' email and physical addresses.  I was stung by at least one of those leaks, and my email inbox has been spammed by scam attempts and generic shitcoin related BS.

I wish more hardware wallet manufacturers made their wallets available at local retailers.  There is a risk the wallets could be tampered with throughout the supply chain, but most hardware wallets can have their firmware flashed, which would reset any malicious firmware that a hacker could introduce.

All in all, the ability to buy a hardware wallet at a local retailer for cash could go a long way to preserving your privacy and security.

Also, the two best hardware wallets, imo hands down, Trezor and CoinKite ColdCard.

Agreed.  I own both, and find them very secure and practical.  I'm also thinking of buying a Foundation Passport, which looks like the safest Bitcoin-Only hardware wallet on the market today.  Plus it's made in the USA.

[PrivacyG]

Honestly, if I was to buy a Ledger I think it's safer to buy it from a local retail store where I can pay in cash.  Ledger has had at least a couple of data breaches that exposed their customers' email and physical addresses.

What about the alternative of using a Post Office Box and ordering on a fake name with a one time use E-mail account?  To conceal it entirely, pay in Cryptocurrency.

By local retail store do you mean official resellers?  I think they have enough resellers to cover most parts of the world.  If planning to buy a Hardware Wallet physically with Cash, just plan the next vacation in a city where an official reseller can be visited.

-
Regards,
PrivacyG

[DireWolfM14]

What about the alternative of using a Post Office Box and ordering on a fake name with a one time use E-mail account?  To conceal it entirely, pay in Cryptocurrency.

That's all great advice.  I do use a PO box and an email address exclusively set up for these types of purchases, but I didn't use a fake name.  I don't know how risky it is to expose my real name along with a PO box, but if things go sideways having a real name makes it much easier to get compensated.

By local retail store do you mean official resellers?  I think they have enough resellers to cover most parts of the world.  If planning to buy a Hardware Wallet physically with Cash, just plan the next vacation in a city where an official reseller can be visited.

Yeah, I mean an official resellers, but even a trusted, locally owned small electronics store would be acceptable.  There's a guy in town who does cellphone repair who stocks Ledgers, but he's not into cyrpto himself.  A couple of years ago I wanted a few Trezor Ones as stocking stuffers for my kids so I asked if he would source them for me, but he wasn't interested.  I wouldn't have any issue buying a hardware wallet from a local mom-&-pop store like that.

Ledger has been good about marketing in general, which is probably why their products are available locally, but even Trezor which seems to be nearly as popular are as rare as hens teeth at local retailers.

[joniboini]

By local retail store do you mean official resellers?  I think they have enough resellers to cover most parts of the world.  If planning to buy a Hardware Wallet physically with Cash, just plan the next vacation in a city where an official reseller can be visited.

Some countries only have one or two resellers at the moment, so it can be a problem if you can't make a trip. In my case, I need to travel for at least half a day to buy from them. They do support online shopping but you'll need to give some personal info at one point or another. Makes me wonder if they share the data with Ledger or not.

Another problem is the price, buying locally costs a lot in my area, probably because the reseller wants more profits. The price difference can start from 30 to 50%. It is probably not a problem if something like Nano S is your target though. I just wish it can be even cheaper.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

So I have in store for you the second best hardware wallet that anyone can use.  Bitbox02 bitcoin only edition, this is a fantastic piece of hardware that stores your private key offline on a micro SD that you can store wherever you see fit.

I haven't used the bitcoin-only version, but I've used the other one and for some reason it slows down my cursor something fierce--have any of you had that experience with the Bitbox?  That's the major issue I have with it as a device, with the secondary one being that it appears to be designed for people with tiny fingers, and for me it's hard to key in the password.  The major gripe against the Ledger products is that the code is closed-source, so if the above things aren't a problem I'd recommend a Bitbox in a heartbeat.

Good to see you here, tread93.  And best of luck to your pops with his wallet selection!