What is the Ledger Stax Wallet? 

If you’re like most of us, using a hardware wallet is one of the least-favorite things to do. Squint at a little screen and arrow over to your coin, and follow the tiny prompt menus. Ugh. 

And Ledger Stax hopes to change all of that by creating the “iPod of wallets.” 

Literally designed by the same guy that designed the iPod, it’s a slick-looking device that has “industrial design” written all over it. Retailing at $279, it’s about double the price of the current Ledger Nano device. The problem will be getting your hands on one, however. 

Unlike the old nano, it will support over 5000 coins which means that we can have true “self-custody.” 

Is this just a glorified software wallet? Software wallets store private keys on systems or devices that are connected to the internet, making them susceptible to all kinds of attacks. Holding your crypto on an exchange means entrusting the private keys to a third party and not having any control over your funds. Ledger Stax stores your private keys offline on a Secure Element chip, and provides full isolation between the keys and your computer/smartphone to give you complete control over your assets.

Lose your Ledger Stax? Don’t worry, you’ll be able to access, manage, and retrieve your crypto as long as your Secret Recovery Phrase is safe and accessible only to you. Simply get another Ledger Stax or any other Ledger and recover access to your accounts using the Secret Recovery phrase.

Ths might actually be the “killer device” that fully enables self-custody and makes crypto ownership simple. Time will tell, especially if and when we can get our hands on one.