Hardware Wallets

Hardware wallets should only be purchased directly from the manufacturer for product integrity and security reasons.

What are hardware wallets?

Hardware wallets are portable devices that provides a secure access to our crypto. They function by generating a user’s private keys in a secure, offline environment while providing easy way to view and interact with your crypto. A hardware wallet typically connects to your computer via USB or Bluetooth and has a separate screen on the wallet to verify and approve transactions. This helps to prevent the disclosure of sensitive information to the internet-connected device.

List of hardware wallets

There are a few hardware wallets on the market. Below is a list we put together the top hardware wallets for crypto in alphabetical order. The list excludes smaller wallet providers and Bitcoin only wallet providers.

• KeepKey

• Keevo

• Ledger NanoX

• Trezor

KeepKey

KeepKey is a subsidiary of Shapeshift, a long-time and trusted software wallet provider in the crypto space. The pros: easy to read screen and direct syncs with Shapedhift wallet which enables user to interact with exchange feature right out of the box. The cons: is that compared to its competitors TREZOR and Ledger, it still lacks community support. Moreover, users must add software such as Electrum or MultiBit to make use of Keepkey applications.

Keevo

The Keevo wallet provides end to end solution for crypto management including Keevo hardware wallet, the carbon key, desktop app and keevo premium plus service. The pros: a unique feature to Keevo Wallet is its “Recovery” feature without having the seed phrase. The cons: not a whole lot of educational content. The process of securing the encrypted data with the company can be worrisome for some users.

Ledger

Offered by a France-based company, Ledger devices can be connected to any mobile device or personal computer with a USB or Bluetooth. This is the most popular hardware wallet to date. There are two popular models in the market today Nano Ledger X with Bluetooth support or Nano Ledger S which is the basic level. The pros: a lot of community support in the form of software integration that uses a ledger to directly transact including DEXs. The cons: software updates can affect user experience, and Bluetooth introduces security concerns (just avoid using Bluetooth).

Trezor

Developed by Satoshi Labs, Trezor is one of the first hardware wallet provider in the world. The pros: in Trezor Model T which is the newest model, the in wallet exchanges have many functionalities including atomic swap and fiat exchange. The cons: the price is a bit higher than it’s competitor. Another option from Trezor is the first model called trezor One.

Each one of the wallets have different attributes depending on your main objectives. At Exponent, we use Ledger due to the large community adoption and support for multisig signing.