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RE: Myetherwallet.com / mycrypto.com drama - "New" owners FUD
wow that's good to know. I use my ledge nano with MEW but I'm still a bit unsure how it all works, or if I'm now at risk.
So question (if you are able/willing to answer) if MEW shuts down entirely while I'm using MEW with the ledger, my eth and erc20 tokens would still be safe because the private keys on on my ledger - is that correct?
haha I still find this stuff confusing.
Yes, your funds aren't stored on MEW but on the ethereum blockchain and MEW is just one of many 'interfaces' you can use to interact with the Ethereum blockchain. So if MEW ever shuts down you will be able to use one of the others, like mycrypto or ledger's own apps or other software that allows you to log in with the Ledger. If all else fails, you can still always use the 24 words you saved to restore your wallets even without the ledger.
So long story short: your funds are safe.
Ledger nano s wallets stop 99.9% of all possible attacks. The only real risk that remains is that whatever software or website or other tool you use, gets compromised. If this happens what they can do is display a different address on your pc screen(a fake address) than is actually used for the transaction (the real one). If you don't pay attention this could mean you could send to a hacker's address. The way to ensure this does not happen, is to always check the address on the physical screen of your device to see if it matches the one displayed on the screen. A hacker can only get to your desktop, but not to your ledger hardware wallet. If the hardware wallet displays a different address, then something is wrong.
So this means if you use MEW or Mycrypto and keep a close eye on your ledger's screen, you should be safe and you can still use either service. Although no guarantees, there could always be an undiscovered bug or otherwise that we don't know about yet. I personally am taking a short break before I use them again until the community decides on which is the most secure option, but I imagine both will remain available and in use . Hope that helps!
That was very helpful thank you. You really broke it down. I was aware that hackers could change the address but not that the ledger displays the address as well. Thats good to know. I just transferred everything onto my ledger last week so I'm really glad I did that. Thanks again :)
You're welcome!
And yes the ledger is still a very safe place to story it. Worst a hacker can try is fool you to sign a transaction that's fake. But the key itself is stored seperate from the desktop pc and so a hacker can never do anything unless the physical buttons are pressed.
Hardware wallets are kind of cool.
What you should do, just for the fun of it, is use your ledger nano s to log into some of the DEXes out there like Radar Relay and Etherdelta. Once you realize how easy it is to connect, you kind of start to realize how things in the future may work! Do note that most people who are new to dexes will make some beginners mistakes and spend more money than they wanted.. so if you want to test things be sure to use small amounts and read up on ethereum gas costs! :)
ok i'll check those out. thanks again