Hardware wallets are generally accepted as the most secure means available to the common public for storing Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. These hardware wallets are essentially physical wallets which can be carried around by users on a hardware device akin to a USB drive or external hard disk drive.
Hardware wallets minimise the chances of the private keys being accidentally exposed or compromised by malware on a personal computer or mobile phone. This has become increasingly important after the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities of modern computer chips were made known to the public early this year.
But are hardware wallets really fail-safe?
Not according to a 15-year-old programmer who claims to have discovered a number of vulnerabilities in the Ledger Nano S in November 2017. Ledger CEO Eric Larchevêque seems to have conceded as much while asserting that Ledger had not received any reports of their hardware wallets being compromised as a result of these vulnerabilities.
“All systems have vulnerabilities,” said Larchevêque. “That’s part of the life of any security system. It’s a game of cat and mouse.”
“No one was compromised that we know of,” he said. “We have no knowledge that any device was affected.”