Ledger Nano S Tutorial : Setup and Guide (Hardware wallet)

Hey everyone, this is the definitive guide to the Ledger Nano S. In this video, I'm going to talk about why you want to buy one of these, how to set it up from scratch, things to look out for when you set it up so you're absolutely safe, and also how to use the advanced features such as adding additional cryptocurrencies such as Dash or Bitcoin Cash. So let's get started. So why would you even ever buy a hardware wallet? Well, the reason why is because cryptocurrencies are completely different from traditional currencies. With the traditional system, you are the most important person. So if you ever lost, say, your password to your bank account, say, even your bank card, or you don't even forgot what your bank account actually is, you can always go to a bank and then produce your passport or some form of ID and say, Hey, I am this person, please give me access to my account. And they will readily and happily allow you to access your account. This is completely different from cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies don't care who you are. Rather, they care about the private key. So the private key is used to verify the account and verify transactions. And they can use mathematics to detect if the private key is used and if it's correctly used. But they don't know who used it. They don't know the identity. So anyone who has access to the private key can send funds. And that's why you must keep it absolutely safe. If a hacker gets access to your funds, then they can steal your funds. And it might be quite a lot of money. And also, cryptocurrencies transactions cannot be reversed. So if a hacker gets access to your funds and steals them, then it's gone forever. There's virtually no way of getting that back. So that's why you want one of these, because these are very, very secure. And how are they secure? It's because the private key always remains on the device. So it never really leaves this piece of hardware. You can't really access it on a computer. And the only way to hack it is with the backup phrase, which I'll talk about in a second. So with this, you're actually safe from hackers. That's the most important thing. There's other alternatives. For example, you can have paper wallets that are also safe. You can also have hot wallets, like wallets running on your computer. And those are very convenient. Or even wallets on your mobile phone. But those all have a little bit of a security risk. And if you're storing large amounts of cryptocurrencies, you should definitely, definitely consider buying one of these. This is not the only brand of hardware wallet as well. There's another brand called Trezor. And those are really good as well. And I'll do a video on that soon. Another thing to note is that paper wallets are very, very safe. They're like kind of the gold standard. But when you manipulate them, they actually have a lot of things you have to look out for. And something like this means that you don't have to really go through the complicated procedures. And you don't have to be ultra paranoid every time you spend your cryptocurrency. So let's get started and let's get this thing set up. When you get the Ledger Nano S or arrive in a box like this, and have the actual product and some cables, the cables works and connects to a computer. So it can connect to your Mac, your Windows, and eventually you can even connect it to your Android or iOS device. And that provides an additional level of security if you're interested in that. You also have a sheet of paper like this. This is your recovery phrase. This is the most important thing about setting this up. So let's talk a little bit about the recovery sheet and the rules for it. So why you need a recovery sheet is that this sheet, the 20 words on this sheet that you're going to write eventually, is going to be able to back up this device. So if in any case you lose this device, you can back it up. And this is why this piece of paper is also the most important thing. This is the most important step, filling out this piece of paper and keeping this piece of paper safe. If a hacker or a thief gets access to this piece of paper, then it's as good as stealing your wallet. And also, you should never ever write this piece of paper or let anyone see it, take photographs of it. That's just a way to get it stolen. Of course, I'm going to reset my device after this. So don't ever show anyone how to do this on a video unless you're going to reset it. So let's start plugging this in. So you can connect it to your computer. That's what I'm doing now. You're going to be greeted with a welcome screen. And you're going to navigate this device using the buttons on the top and right. So there's two buttons, back and forward, and you can press both buttons to begin. So here it's going to prompt you if you want to set this up as a new device or restore your device. So that's where, if you ever want to restore, that's a step. But I'm going to set this up as a new device. It's going to ask you to enter in a PIN. So the PIN is actually really important. And this is used every time you log into the device to prove that it's you. So here you can just set anything you want. Basically, you can use the left, right buttons to set a PIN. I'm going to set a very easy PIN. I'm just going to set 55555 because it's just for demo purposes. So 55555, check mark, done. So I'm going to read it, enter that again. 55555, check mark. So at this step, you're going to write down your 20-word recovery phrase. So ledgers always have a 20-word recovery phrase. And you want to write this down on a piece of paper. So you never, ever write that on a computer. Because if you write it on a computer, it's as good as having a hot wallet. Because now hackers can access that and steal that. So you always want to write it physically with a pen on a piece of paper. You don't want to write it with a pen that can be easily erased or a pencil. Because you want to keep this for a long time. So make sure that you write it down very carefully. So it's going to be a very long process of running down 20 words. The order of the words are very important as well. And you have it on a grid here where it's all numbered nicely. So at this stage, you want to make sure that the words are legible. The handwriting is clean and clear. And you also want to make sure that the order is correct. Now the device is going to ask you to confirm your recovery phrase. And it's going to ask you what your words are. So for example, it's going to ask you, you know, what's your 17th word? And you're going to find it. It's extremely, extremely important that you do not take a photo off your piece of paper. And you keep it safe, somewhere locked up, somewhere you can remember. Because if in the event that these buttons stop working on the device, you can still recover the device. Or if you lose the device, you have a backup. So this is absolutely important. Now the device is set up and ready to use. I'm going to connect it to my Windows PC. And I'm going to show you guys how to use it. So now let's start setting up the device on the computer. So now I'm running on Windows PC. I have Chrome open. If you're on Mac OS, the steps are very, very similar. Because you're actually using a browser to do this. So you plug it into your computer. And you go to apps. So under apps, you're going to have a few wallet apps and manage apps. So first of all, what you want to do is if you want to check out Bitcoin, let's go to the Ledger wallet app first. So this is for Bitcoin apps. And you're going to download the Chrome extension. So with the Chrome extension, it works on basically both Mac and Windows because you're running the Chrome browser. So when you connect your Ledger Nano S to the Bitcoin wallet on your app, you actually need to select which blockchain you want to use. So if you were using Bitcoin prior to the split, you're going to have Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. Whilst if it's after August 1st, 2017, you're only going to have Bitcoin. So you're going to select one of these. And you're going to say, for example, Bitcoin. If you want to send Bitcoin Cash, you can just click this button. And you'll be absolutely good. In this demo, I'm just going to select Bitcoin. So now it's going to connect your wallet and synchronize with your device. So once you're in, you're going to see how many Bitcoins you have. And now this is a very, very easy to wallet. You have options to send, to receive, and to have your settings for it. So you're going to navigate the device using your computer. That's the most important thing. And you can actually now just happily send and receive Bitcoin. It's important to know that you can receive Bitcoin when the device is offline. So it's only when you need to send Bitcoin that you need to connect the device and enter your PIN and log in. So if I want to send Bitcoin to myself, I want to send 0.01 Bitcoins. Then I have a Bitcoin. Enter my amount here. Enter the address. And I'll choose the cheapest fees. So there's $0.06 of fees. And then I'm going to send, I can send that off. Here, after the transaction is actually set on my computer, I need to verify on my device. And it's going to show the information on the device over here. It's important to double check the address and make sure that you're sending to the right person. And once you click it, it's going to sign the transaction on the device. Your private key will never, ever leave the device. Only the result, the broadcast result will leave the device. And then you're good to go. So now the send has been successfully completed. So now I just sent off my Bitcoin. It's important to remember that unconfirmed means you don't have to do anything. It just means the network has to confirm this transaction in the form of mining. Once I'm finished transacting, you can just close it off and just turn off the device. Next up, I'm going to show you guys how to add additional coins onto your Ledger wallet. What you want to do is you want to go back to the ledgerwallet.com and go to apps. You're going to find the Ledger manager here. And we're going to open that up. And install it. It's going to be another Chrome app yet again. And once I've launched it, I can just log into my wallet to begin. So now you can see this interface. I can download multiple wallets. You have Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dash, Dolecoin, Ethereum. And you have Litecoin, Stratus, Zcash, Ripple. So you have quite a lot of coins here. So for example, if you want to add Dash, you're going to click that. And now Dash will be added to my Ledger Nano S. When I want to use the Dash wallet, you want to go back to the Ledger wallet and just get and download the Ledger Nano S Dash wallet. I do want to note that if you want to do a firmware update, you will actually erase all your applications and configurations. So this actually means you have to resume a backup. So make sure that you keep your private keys safe. You're basically your backup phrase safe. Otherwise, you're going to encounter some problems. I'm going to show you guys how to restore as a backup. Some users actually reset the device after backing it up because they want to verify that these codes are correct. So that's absolutely something you can do. It's a little bit tedious, but it's an additional layer of security. So I'm going to configure it as an old device. Restore configuration. Choose a pin code. All right, now it's going to tell me to enter the recovery phrase. 24 word recovery phrase. Here we go. Okay, so now it's going to ask me to enter the number. So for example, we have carbon as the first one. So C, C, A, and then R. Okay, select word carbon. Done. So you have to keep doing this and select your words until you get the recovery phrase set up. So you have to do this word by word for 24 words. It's going to be a little bit tedious and you can't use a computer to fill this in because that compromises the security. So there we go. That's the Ledger Nano S tutorial. If you have any questions for me, do ask me down below. I would love to answer them and make additional videos if you guys are confused. If you guys have any other concerns, you can also go to Ledger Nano S website. And if you guys want to order a Ledger Nano S, do use the link below because that helps my channel out a little bit. Guys, thank you so much for watching. See you next time.