Ledger halts support for Nano S software. What’s next?

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Security company and leading hardware wallet maker Ledger is ending support for its Nano S hardware wallet software.

In an X thread on 26 June, the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) of the company Charles Guillemet said Ledger has been gradually phasing out full support for the wallet due to memory constraints.

Age catching up

The Ledger Nano S was the first hardware wallet ever created by Ledger, back in 2016. As one of the leading wallets then, it helped revolutionize self-custody.

However, according to Guillemet, the rapid growth of blockchains makes it impossible for the Ledger Nano S to catch up with support for new applications, feature submissions, or app updates.

This is primarily because of the limited memory of the wallet’s 320kb memory, which the company says can easily get filled up by just Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Exchange apps, leaving almost no room for anything else.

“This memory limitation prevents the Ledger Nano S  from supporting many newer features and essential security enhancements such as multiple apps simultaneously, latest and future Clear Signing improvements for transaction security, Transaction Check and Ledger Sync, swaps e.g. with THORChain, Uniswap, TON, ADA, NEAR, AVAX, DOT, as well as Device Language Packs.”

Guillemet adds that the new features are crucial for improving clarity, usability, and, most importantly, security in today’s complex crypto landscape, so there’s a need for more capable software. 

What to do

If you’re a Ledger Nano S user, you don’t have to do anything because you’re fully in control of your assets as long as your 24-word recovery phrase remains secure, which you can use to restore the wallet on a new Ledger or any BIP39-compatible device

You can also easily access your assets at any time, but it is advisable to migrate to the Nano S Plus at the earliest convenience because with what has been said, the wallet may be exposed to more security threats.