I'm proud to announce that Ledger has finished their official review and published Hive application in their directory. This means that Hive is now officially supported and available on all Ledger devices! It has been already listed on supported crypto assets list on their official website. This is a huge milestone for Hive ecosystem as it drastically increases security and opens the ecosystem to more investors.
After almost two years of effort, countless hours of development, testing, and writing documentation, everyone can easily install Hive app directly from Ledger Live and use it to protect their accounts. In case of any problems, they can also find some official support articles.
Why is it important?
It is yet another milestone that Hive ecosystem has reached. Few weeks ago our core developers introduced One-Block Irreversibility (changes introduced in HF26) and it puts Hive in a position of the industry leader in DPOS blockchains space. Let's take advantage of this!
Improved security
Hardware wallets are considered one of the best ways to manage your crypto assets. Using a hardware wallet increases overall security because you never expose your private keys to the outside world. Private keys are securely stored inside the hardware and never leave it. Even if you connect the device via USB, there is no way to leak your private keys. That's essential for your account security as we all know that leaks happen all the time, even to those who take special care to prevent them.
More exposure for Hive ecosystem
It also opens Hive to a broader audience. From now on, it can be targeted to people that rely on hardware wallets to protect their assets. It often happens, that crypto projects without hardware wallets support are not taken seriously. It is not a case anymore for Hive and combining it with 20% APR for keeping our stable coin, it makes a great opportunity to start onboarding more and more serious investors.
Hive Ledger Wallet
Hive Ledger Wallet became the official wallet for Hive and Ledger integration. It is a featureful application that follows integration standards and allows Hive users to secure their accounts. It is available in Chrome, Opera and Brave browsers (unfortunately, other browsers do not support webUSB protocol).
Btw, if you don't have a Ledger wallet yet, buy one with this affiliate link to support me!
I'm also eager to implement or help implement Hive Ledger support in other wallets, like Vessel and Keychain to make the experience even better and easier for the end user.
If you missed my previous posts, here's the list of useful links:
- How to use Hive Ledger Wallet
- How to create cold storage wallet with Ledger Nano and earn 20% HBD stable coin interest
FAQ
What is it, for who and what does it do?
This is a way to secure your account. Ultimately. You can replace your authority keys with those from your hardware wallet and use it to sign any transaction. It's not going to make your Hive experience easier but it will be a great way to create a safe cold wallet.
It is for everyone who wants to protect himself from being scammed or compromised. Keeping your owner key on Ledger device makes your account almost impossible to hack (this of course depends on how you treat your seed phrase). But from the key perspective - no one will have a chance to see it.
What happens if my device breaks / I lose it?
All keys available on the device are derived from a single seed phrase in a deterministic and secure way by following SLIP-0048 standard. This means that in case of any problems with your device, you can recreate another one using the same seed phrase and replace it. You can even use multiple devices with the same seed phrase at the same time and it will work seamlessly.
Can I use my device to protect multiple accounts?
Yes, keys can be derived from a hierarchical tree with an almost unlimited amount of branches, which means you can secure all of your accounts. I already did that and replaced owner keys in all my Hive accounts. You don't even need to remember anything - hiveledger.io will automatically discover all your accounts every time you visit it.
Can I power up Hive that is held on Ledger?
First - it's crucial to understand that all your assets are stored in a decentralized database (blockchain) and Ledger device only keeps your private keys. This means that you can perform any operation while having an account associated with Ledger device.
You can use Ledger to sign any transaction. It includes staking (powering up), governance operations, transfers and all L2 operations as well.
Would I still be able to vote and earn curation rewards?
As stated above - yes, you can perform any operation on Hive blockchain. It might be difficult at the moment because if you replace active and posting keys, you rely on hiveledger.io which does not allow you to perform social operations easily but it will be accessible when we add Ledger support to Hive Keychain.
Can I replace only the master key to keep all social abilities like posting?
That's correct and I would say it's recommended way. If you replace your owner key you are sure no one can steal your account. If you keep your old active and posting keys, you can keep using Hive Keychain or whatever wallet you're using right now.
On this screen you need to unselect active and posting keys to keep the access in Hive Keychain:
You may want to replace all your keys only if you want to create a safe cold storage wallet that is ultimately protected.
I was using Hive app in developer mode, should I update it?
It is recommended to disable developer mode in Ledger Live and update Hive app to the latest version. It introduces a blind signing feature that might be required to sign some of the transactions.
I use Hive so actively that it's probably a hassle for me to sign anything with the Ledger device.
You can always replace only your owner key to ultimately protect your account, leaving current active and posting keys to be able to interact with other frontends. That's what I did. I'm able to write on peakd.com and sign it with Keychain and also interact with Hive Ledger Wallet at the same time.
Call to action - Hive needs you!
This is a great opportunity for the entire ecosystem and let's take advantage of this! Please spread and share this article to reach people that might be interested in Hive. Write your own and share it on Twitter, Facebook and other social media websites! The more people will hear about Hive the better for all of us!
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