👋 Bye bye, Nano S

GM.

Still coming down from the high-energy excitement that was Permissionless last week. I must say, though, I’m so glad to be out of that heatwave.

Robinhood launching an L2 is pretty massive. They’re probably the biggest threat to Coinbase and Base, if you ask me.

Today we’re talking about wallet news. I guess our crypto wallets were never really meant to last forever.

— Kate Irwin

Ledger faces backlash over Nano S wallet

Frustrated owners of Ledger’s Nano S hardware wallet aren’t happy the company will no longer provide updates for the nearly decade-old hardware device.

For some, hardware wallets are intended to be a way to safely HODL crypto for many years — sometimes decades. At least that’s (in theory) what many users want to do, so the potential for long-term cold storage is one of the main appeals of a hardware wallet.

But Ledger retired its Nano S device in 2022 and is now in the process of phasing out support for it. The Nano S was released in 2016, meaning it was sold for six years.

I spotted dozens of frustrated, confused, and angry comments on CT from crypto traders unsure about what the move means. They called the Nano S sunset “uncool” and “scammy,” while others raised concerns about the device’s security going forward if any possible bugs are left unaddressed. 

For some customers, it may also raise questions about whether they’ll need to keep buying new hardware wallets every five to 10 years if more older models are deprecated in the future. While older Ledger wallets cost around $100 each, newer models like the Ledger Flex are $250 and the Ledger Stax is $400. The Nano X is $150.

In response to the confusion, Ledger repeatedly said that while updates for the device are being phased out, the wallet will “still work.” The company is recommending users buy a newer device, though (and is offering Nano S owners 20% off to upgrade to a wallet that’s still being updated).

Ledger CTO Charles Guillemet explained that technical issues played a factor in the decision to sunset updates for the Nano S — as well as the reality that crypto use cases and the sheer number of chains have greatly expanded since 2016.

“Memory is its primary constraint,” he said of the Nano S. “Initially robust, the rapid growth of blockchains means the Ledger Nano S can’t support new applications, feature submissions, or app updates. The LedgerOS, Bitcoin, Ethereum and Exchange apps alone nearly fill its 320KB memory, leaving very little room for anything else.”

He explained that the Nano S can’t support clearer transaction signing messages, swaps on some chains, language packs, or features like Transaction Check and Ledger Sync.

“BTC, ETH, and other major apps will remain functional on the Ledger Nano S for the foreseeable future. It still supports essential actions like sending, receiving, buying, selling, and swapping,” Guillemet said.

The company also confirmed that bitcoin transactions will continue to work on the Nano S “for the foreseeable future,” unless major changes were made to the Bitcoin protocol itself — in which case it would warn customers in advance. 

The Nano S Plus, Nano X, and other Ledger devices are still being supported — for now.

I’ve reached out to Ledger for additional comment.

MetaMask, embedded

MetaMask is getting into the wallet-as-a-service game. They’re now offering crypto app developers the ability to use embedded wallets, which can create non-custodial user wallets with just a few clicks using single sign-on methods like logging in with an X, Google, Discord or Facebook account. 

Those who don’t want to link an account can sign in with another email or phone number — or use an existing crypto wallet instead. The embedded MetaMask wallet can be customized to match a brand’s color. 

MetaMask says the Embedded Wallet feature can be added “in just four lines of code” and that the wallet login appears without being a pop-up or redirect. Over 40 blockchains can be supported, including EVM and non-EVM chains.

Adding this product may help MetaMask better compete with the likes of Privy (recently acquired by Stripe) and others in the wallet-integration space.