Ledger releases colourful new Ledger Nano S family, up to 30% off

Backup hardware wallets can be better than seed phrases alone. And more importantly, they look cool.

Want some colours other than green and red (but mostly red lately) in your crypto life?

You're in luck, because Ledger has spruced up its best-selling Ledger Nano S with six slick new hues, along with a solid discount of up to 30% until 21 November. And they really do look pretty nice.

Colouring between the lines

Beyond the all-important aesthetic factors there are some practical reasons for spicing up your hardware wallet. If you have multiple hardware wallets – which is often recommended for users who want a backup for their primary wallet – it can be helpful to tell them apart. The deal might also be geared towards this.

Plus, the nature of this deal means it's plain better value to get multiple devices now and just get those tasteful matte pastels as an added bonus, rather than get multiple identical-looking full priced Ledgers.

You get 20% off when you buy a black Ledger Nano S plus one other colour of your choice, and 30% off when buying the black Nano S along with two or more other colours, which gears this deal nicely towards people who are looking for multiple wallets.

Some people might also prefer to keep different coins in different wallets (yellow for bitcoin, pink for aeternity?) or otherwise separate their holdings in clear ways, such as with a travel Ledger. Plus, if you're taking the increasingly-possible step of travelling on crypto alone it might pay to have a spare in case one gets lost.

Everything else aside, backup hardware wallets can be your best friend.

Backup wallets vs recovery phrases

When you get a new Ledger Nano S, it comes with a 24 word recovery phrase. This phrase is like a second password that allows access to the funds on that wallet, even without the wallet. If something happens to the wallet itself, that recovery phrase ensures that the funds on it don't have to be lost.

So if you have just one Ledger Nano S and your dog eats it, you can rely on that 24 word recovery phrase.

The catch is that a 24 word recovery phrase isn't the easiest thing to store securely. You probably don't want to just store it in digital form on a computer or random hard drive, as it could be remotely accessed through malware on that computer or lost if the hard drive abruptly passes away.

Common practice, then, is to write it down on a physical piece of paper or two, and then make sure that paper is kept somewhere safe. The new problem, then, is that pen and paper aren't really known for their durability. If both the Ledger and the backup phrase are kept in a house they might be lost to a fire, flood or other act-of-God type incidents.

You might keep the paper in a bank safe deposit box, as some people do, but you'd want to be very sure that it won't fade away over time, get damaged by humidity or otherwise become unreadable. Or you might keep the backup phrase with a trusted third party, but you really need to trust them because anyone with the right know-how who has access to that phrase can access the Ledger funds.

Having an actual backup ledger can be much more practical. To create one, you simply enter the recovery phrase from your primary device into the backup. It's exactly the same procedure that you'd use to recover funds after losing your Ledger, except you're doing it without losing your Ledger.

Now, with an actual backup hardware wallet rather than just a written recovery phrase, you can keep the wallet itself with third parties in a safe location without worrying about them accessing the funds. They would still need to have your chosen 4-8 digit PIN or backup phrase to get into the Ledger.

Having multiple devices also raises some interesting possibilities for partners who want to share a single crypto "account" with their own separate Ledgers. That way you're both ready just in case society crumbles and bitcoin becomes the new global currency while one of you is at the shops.

Plus, it's worth reiterating that they look great. The black and yellow ones look especially fantastic, but of course there's no accounting for taste.

If you like what you see, you can get your discounted Ledgers here.

Here's a portrait shot of the happy family. Somehow the transparent Ledger is managing to look slightly resentful at being left to the side of the main photo.

Disclosure: At the time of writing the author holds ETH, IOTA, ICX, VET, XLM, BTC

Picture: Shutterstock