Ledger Wallet: The best cold storage wallet for Bitcoins

I’ve had my fair amount of curiosity with Bitcoins. I’ve tried to unstandardized the block chain model, mined bitcoins and I’ve even traded bitcoins to make a profit out of it. It was just a fascinating hobby for me. Bitcoin was huge and supposed to be the future and at a point of time, it seemed unstoppable.  Then, Mt. Gox happpened. A hack, where a lot of people lost their money and since Bitcoin is anonymous, that money is gone and can never be recovered. The biggest concern for bitcoins is security. After that hack, I made sure I never had a large amount of bitcoins.

It is possible to store bitcoins on a computer, but if the computer crashes, the money goes with it. In comes Ledger wallet. It arrived at my desk a couple of months back and I’ve been thoroughly impressed with it. They’ve thought about every way a Bitcoin wallet can be hacked and tried to patch it up. Physically, the Ledger Wallet Nano looks similar to a pen drive, but much smaller. This is probably one of the most secure ways to store bitcoins.

Ledger Wallet  can be inserted into any computer and it comes with a supporting Chrome app which can be downloaded from the Chrome App Store. Once the app is downloaded, for the initial setup you have to come up with a 4 digit passcode. After that, it displays 24 random words which should be noted down in a recovery sheet. Ledger wallet is the safest way to store bitcoins because in case you loose it, you can get a new one and recover the bitcoins by using these random 24 words for authentication.

Ledger wallet is completely decentralised. You own everything. The wallet also comes with a physical two factor authentication card. Every transaction requires two factor authentication from the physical card. Ledger has also launched an app for iOS and Android which will give the two factor code and also requires authentication on the phone.

If you’re serious into bitcoins, ledger wallet is one of the most secure way to store them. Also, unlike other physical wallets, Ledger Nano is very inexpensive. You can get it for 29€ on their site or for $40 in Amazon.