A hardware wallet is one of the most secure ways to store one’s cryptocurrency portfolio in this day and age. Various companies offer such products, with Ledger being the most popular. The firm recently introduced Ledger Live, and two new apps were made public late last week.
Expanding Ledger Live’s Functionality
Even though hardware wallets are clearly the way to go for cryptocurrency users, they are not too user-friendly. Setting up a Ledger wallet used to require separate browser plugins, which was somewhat of a hassle for people who had no experience using browsers in such an “advanced” manner.
Ledger has acknowledged that its user-friendliness could be improved upon. To address most of these concerns, the company introduced a service known as Ledger Live. It is a very different way of accessing one’s hardware wallet, as it makes the entire process a lot more straightforward and enjoyable. This new desktop application is available for Windows, Linux, and MacOS.
Through this desktop-oriented interface, users will receive the functionality previously offered by the aforementioned browser plugins. However, they can also access this service using any computer on which the app is installed, regardless of which browser is installed. It is a far more user-friendly approach, and it makes the Ledger hardware wallet far more accessible to novice cryptocurrency users.
To further expand the services provided by Ledger Live, two new tools have been introduced. One application goes by the name of HODL. It allows users to use their Ledger Nano S hardware wallet as a virtual keyboard for entering wallet addresses on a computer. It’s a smart addition, given the growing number of malware variants which monitor the Windows clipboard and modify copied cryptocurrency wallet addresses.
The second application goes by the name of RecoveryCheck. It is designed to let users check their 24-word recovery phrase. This information is usually generated and written down during the initial setup of one’s wallet. Verifying their seeds using a standalone tool will give users peace of mind in case they misplace them.
Both of these developments show there are still a lot of improvements to be made in order to make cryptocurrency more accessible to the masses. Ledger is on the right track toward making that happen, although these will not be the final applications released by the company. As more people get into cryptocurrency, solutions like these will only grow in popularity.
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