Ledger's Lasting Power

Ledger hardware wallet CEO Eric Larcheveque has been making the rounds on YouTube lately, no doubt promoting the long-awaited Ledger Nano X. Larcheveque, a life-long entrepreneur who started his first company in 1996, discussed hard wallet tech, the future of Ledger and something I have been curious about since I loaded funds onto my ledger - how long will the device last?

Ledgers themselves are unique because they use smart chip technology (born in Larcheveque’s home country of France) just like the smart chip in a credit card to keep your private keys encrypted. Normal data chips are not encrypted, but the ledger’s uniquely encrypted smart chip signs transactions while concealing your private keys, making them costly and extremely difficult to attack within mere minutes, giving one time to recover, or move their private keys if the worst happened.

Malicious hackers aside, what damage can time do on these hard storage devices?

Everyday USB thumb drives have a life of about 10k to 100k write/erase cycles. In fact, there is no permanent version of hard data storage around today. Larcheveque claims that Ledger is built to last for twenty years before degrading, and this is in part due to the specially sealed smart chips. Ledger is unique in this regard compared to its competitors, who use regular data chips that can degrade at the rate of a USB thumb drive.

The Ledger has also risen among the ranks for its ability to hold the widest amount of currencies out there. While the current Nano S only has 120kb memory (not enough to hold all apps without uninstalling current apps to free up space) the Nano X will store more than 100 of your favorite apps at once, thanks to 2MB memory.

The new ledger will also feature Bluetooth for easy cordless access on mobile devices - good news for iPhone users, and better UI. With all of the exciting upgrades in the the Ledger Nano X, it is no surprise that many have already ordered and wait patiently for its delivery, which has been stalled.

According to Larcheveque, it was a cosmetic issue that held back the release of the long-awaited Ledger Nano X wallet. The smooth plastic molds surrounding the screen were made incorrectly by a supplier and didn’t hold up during production, resulting in damaged plastic parts.

Rather than deliver less than perfect products to the public, they had to delay the release of the Nano X, which will hopefully begin in early May.
In the future, Larcheveque is looking forward to incorporating swaps, staking and smart contracts into Ledger’s robust tech. Ledger’s plans to pair their software with smartphones will no doubt help adoption catch on.

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