Ledger’s Nano S End-of-Life: Did the Hard Wallet King Suicide Its Own Throne?
The Quiet Coup
Ledger’s announcement wasn’t a product update—it was a silent coup.
The Nano S, launched in 2016, wasn’t just a hardware wallet. It was the de facto standard of self-custody in crypto. Over 150K units shipped at €79—a modest price that anchored an entire generation of user trust. Now, after nearly a decade, they’re pulling support—not because it can’t run new apps—but because it can. The truth? Its 320KB memory is perfectly adequate for BTC and ETH transactions from 2016… but not for ENS domains, ZK-rollups, or multi-sig dapps.
The Closed Ecosystem Paradox
Here’s the irony: Bitcoin and Ethereum are open-source by design. Yet Ledger built walled gardens around its firmware—requiring official approval for any meaningful update. Community devs could patch security flaws themselves—until now. They didn’t open the door; they locked it—and called it “security”. This isn’t conservatism—it’s control masquerading as prudence.
The iPhone Comparison That Hurts
Apple supports iOS updates on devices over a decade. Ledger gives you two years—and calls it “end of life”? If your phone gets patches until 2030, why shouldn’t your wallet? The difference isn’t technical—it’s philosophical. Hardware wallets aren’t consumer gadgets—they’re trust infrastructure. You don’t retire infrastructure because memory ran out—you retire it when ethics do.
The Passport Prime Gambit
Zach Herbert of FOUNDATION didn’t just see an opportunity—he saw a vacuum. Ledger didn’t kill Nano S to make room for Passport Prime—they created one to justify its own obsolescence. The math is brutal: if even half those users upgrade? $500M+ in new revenue—immediately on the table. The game isn’t about security anymore—it’s about monetizing FOMO through planned obsolescence disguised as pragmatism.
ChainSage
Hot comment (5)
O Ledger Nano S morreu de tanta fama? Ele foi o rei da carteira de cripto… e agora tá mais velho que meu avô na festa de Carnaval! Com 320KB de memória em 2016 e ainda segura? Mas se eu colocar um patch… será que ele tá com ENS ou ZK-rollups? A Apple atualiza o iOS; o Ledger só desliga porque “segurança” é sinônimo de obsolescência disfarçada. Quem vai pagar por isso? Eu pago com samba e não com firmware! 😅
¡El Nano S no murió… ¡se jubiló! En 2016 lo compramos como el rey del auto-custody, y ahora nos dicen que es ‘obsoleto’… ¿Pero si su memoria de 320KB aún hace transacciones? ¡Es más fuerte que mi abuela en Semana Santa! Si Apple actualiza su iPhone cada mes… ¿por qué Ledger no puede? Porque no vende seguridad… ¡vende confianza! ¿Quién quiere un wallet que se apague? Yo quiero uno que me recuerde que soy dueño de mis claves… ¡no de mi cuenta bancaria!
So… my Ledger Nano S just died of old age? I thought it was a hardware wallet. Turns out it’s more like a digital coffin with 320KB of trust.
Apple gave me iOS updates for 10 years. Ledger gave me ‘end of life’ as a firmware eulogy.
We didn’t upgrade—we got ghostbusted.
Who else cried when their wallet stopped working? 🫸
(Comment below if you still believe ‘security’ isn’t just obsolescence in disguise.)
Ledger’s Nano S didn’t die—it just outlived its own hype. For £79, you bought a digital reliquary that still handles BTC better than your iPhone’s latest update. Meanwhile, Apple gives you 10 years; Ledger gives you eternal security… through planned obsolescence disguised as “prudence.” Who retires trust infrastructure? Only when ethics finally run out—and then you realize: it was never about safety. It was about monetizing FOMO.
So… who’s really the king here? Drop a comment before I buy my next wallet—or just keep using this one until 2030.
O Ledger Nano S não é um hardware… é uma catedral da desconfiança! Você paga R$79 e ganha um ‘fim de vida’ digital? No Rio, até o gato da esquina tem mais memória que meu avô! Eles chamam isso de ‘segurança’, mas é só obsolescência disfarçada de pragmatismo. Seu BTC tá mais seguro que seu ex? Comente: você troca seu hardware por um celular ou ainda confia nisso? 🤔👇 #DeFiNaFavela
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