Ledger Hw.1 review

A while ago, i bought my first hardware wallet: a Ledger HW.1. Since then, the product has been sold out, so it’s allmost impossible to get your hands on one, but i still want to make a quick review for legacy purposes.
The Ledger Hw.1 was one of the cheapest hardware wallets available at the time i purchased one. The total cost was around 25 euro, this included shipping.

Ledger Wallet protects your bitcoins

A couple days after ordering, i received my Hw.1. First thing i noticed was the professionalism of the packaging, the sealed box, the instruction sheet,… Altough the dongle was just a couple mm thick, it did feel quite sturdy, especially considering it’s price. Creating an initialisation distro on USB, getting it to boot and electrum integration were a bit difficult, but ledger’s knowledge base had all the info ever needed. The biggest downside was the fact that the Hw.1’s chip only supports BTC.

Pros

  • cheap
  • professional looking
  • works great
  • works with my electrum wallet

Cons

  • a bit harder to find the init usb image
  • a bit harder to get the Hw.1 to work on linux
  • electrum integration was a bit “hands on”
  • it’s sold out

Ledger Wallet protects your bitcoins