0

if the hardware wallet company ledger goes out of business, what will happen to my crypto asset / private keys in ledger? I heard that the hardware wallet ledger is not open-source, so will the company get access to my private key? Will I be able to transfer my crypto elsewhere?

Murch
  • 75,206
  • 34
  • 186
  • 622

2 Answers2

2

Your keys are stored securely on the hardware device itself.

If Ledger (or Trezor) goes out of business then their wallet client will also most likely not be supported anymore.

This isn’t that much of an issue. Other wallets have support for interacting with your hardware wallet, like Electrum for BTC, Electron Cash for BCH, and MyEtherWallet’s website for ETH.

If you also have your seed written down, you can import that seed into Electrum. This is more of a last resort move though.

  • In case it's not clear, the edit proposed to this post is unnecessary and, after being rolled back three times, obviously unwelcome. pokkst: Thank you for your contribution to our site. – Murch Apr 13 '21 at 13:25
  • The altcoins mentioned in the answer are unnecessary and I have answered the question as well. Contribution by pokkst on Bitcoin SE after 7 days of joining Bitcoin SE: 7 answers out of which 3 are about bcash. –  Apr 13 '21 at 13:46
  • 1 answer mentioned ViaBTC's Transaction Accelerator. Another was a direct question about Bitcoin Cash. And this one, which asked about crypto assets.

    Sorry to hear you're butthurt.

    And thanks, Murch. :)

     –  Apr 13 '21 at 13:55
  • No I am not butthurt. Just trying to follow the rules related to offtopic. 1. ViaBTC accepts BTC, BCH and LTC. Specifically mentioning one shows your intentions. 2. Direct question about bcash is closed now FYI following the same rules. 3. This question doesn't ask for specific altcoins and wallets including forks of Electrum which are not even safe. Even if it does, altcoins are offtopic and we can never be sure about security of each. –  Apr 13 '21 at 14:07
  • 1
    I gave specific coins as an example to answer the original question. Sorry this is so hard to understand for you.

    Certain forks of Electrum are safe. The code is open source. Crazy how that works.

     –  Apr 13 '21 at 14:12
  • 2
    I'd prefer if comments about other topics were posted on said other topic, they don't seem particularly relevant here. This question and answer pertain to cryptocurrencies in general including Bitcoin in particular. The topic seems to be well in the purview of "technologies or events that are applicable and relevant to the Bitcoin network and users of the Bitcoin currency in the past, present, or future". I don't see any content here that violates the rules of this site. – Murch Apr 13 '21 at 14:29
  • Sure. Electron Cash, BCH, Myetherwallet and ETH are technologies or events that are applicable to the Bitcoin Network and users of the bitcoin currency TIL –  Apr 13 '21 at 16:46
  • 1
    @Prayank Questions have to be applicable to Bitcoin's technology, which means either specifically about Bitcoin-related things, or generic enough that the answer applies to several systems. I believe that is the case here. There is no rule that answers cannot mention other things if the answerer feels the question is best served that way. You trying to police everything said here in that regard is very disruptive (to me, and I assume to others as well) to people trying to just get good technical answers on this site. – Pieter Wuille Apr 13 '21 at 16:58
  • @PieterWuille I don't have any issue if you and others are okay with people mentioning altcoins in answers that can be avoided. Even you have mentioned things being off topic several times here and I am doing the same. Will you also be okay with newbies who read this answer and lose money using electron cash or myetherwallet because of security issues or are you okay legitimizing altcoins that spread misinformation every day about Bitcoin on several platforms? Good technical answer doesn't mean unnecessarily mentioning altcoins on Bitcoin SE –  Apr 13 '21 at 17:05
  • 3
    Pretending altcoins don't exist doesn't serve anybody. There is a difference between trying to keep the site Bitcoin-focussed, and trying to censor the mere mention of other things. You can be more constructive for example by mentioning the dangers of various websites, or pointing out that using a hardware wallet for many systems at once does increase the threat surface (e.g. bugs in the Ledger's ETH code). – Pieter Wuille Apr 13 '21 at 17:06
  • 2
    Makes sense. Will not edit mention of any altcoin however will highlight risks in future. Thanks. –  Apr 13 '21 at 17:30
  • @pokkst By "wallet client", you mean trezor/ledger desktop/phone app? –  Apr 14 '21 at 02:49
  • 1
    Yeah, like Trezor has the Trezor Suite and/or wallet.trezor.io. Ledger has Ledger Live (or did, I don't know what their current app is).

    Fair warning: If I remember correctly there is some Trezor app on Android/iOS that is fake. I don't recommend using it with your phone.

     –  Apr 14 '21 at 03:39
1

if the hardware wallet company ledger goes out of business, what will happen to my crypto asset / private keys in ledger?

It's difficult to answer about other cryptocurrencies and security of each. This website is for Bitcoin and you should be fine even if hardware wallet company like ledger goes out of business because they don't have access to your private keys, seed and other backup information which can be used to access your bitcoin using open source wallets like Bitcoin Core, Electrum etc.

I heard that the hardware wallet ledger is not open-source, so will the company get access to my private key?

No they don't have access to your keys afaik. There are other hardware wallet options available as well: Coldcard, Trezor, Bitbox, Jade etc.

Ledger HW architecture: https://www.ledger.com/secure-hardware-and-open-source

Will I be able to transfer my crypto elsewhere?

Yes. You should always have multiple backups and keep them safe. They can be used to access your bitcoin. Test your backups regularly to ensure they work when required.