Ledger Stax: Bringing Security & Ease-Of-Use To Our Digital Lives

My name is Ian Rogers and I’m the Chief Experience Officer here at Ledger, which means I work with the Ledger team to develop your end-to-end experience when buying and using a Ledger device.  

From purchasing on Ledger.com, to opening the box and setting up your device, to buying, swapping, staking, and spending your crypto via Ledger Live, connecting to Web3 and minting NFTs using Ledger Connect, all the way to getting help from Ledger’s customer care team when you need it.  

When you buy a Ledger you are not just buying a piece of hardware, you are buying a secure and easy-to-use experience.  At Ledger here in Paris we work every day to make this experience easier and better for you than it was yesterday.

For the past 7 years Ledger has set the standard for secure hardware.  Our unwavering belief is that this new human invention, digital ownership and scarcity, powered by public blockchains, becomes indispensable in our lives. The invention of Bitcoin is as important today as ever and in addition to digital money and payments, digital goods and services will become an increasing part of everyday life, from collectibles, products, tickets, and memberships, to the deeds and titles of physical assets we own such as cars and land, all our way to our identities. Years from now your government document will be a digital one, and the way you move borders will be with a signature from your wallet which contains that document.

That feels a long way off, but pause for a moment and think how much has changed in the last 25 years. In the 90s people said “everyone will never have broadband!” Ten years later the same people said “Everyone will never have a smartphone!” Yet today humanity collectively uses more than 6.5B internet-connected smartphones to live their daily lives. Many of us spend hours every day collaborating with others in borderless online worlds, and the people whose opinions we value most are not our physical neighbors, they are our network ones. Of course this evolving world will have its own economy, and you will have your digital value and your digital identity within this world.

But if our value and identity are digital, then digital asset security is NOT OPTIONAL. Self custody is a right. Protecting your private key, with a secure chip, and signing transactions with a secure screen and input are required basic security needs.

All software runs on hardware – none of us have ever used software without using hardware! And if the hardware you hold in your hand doesn’t have a secure element and a secure screen, there is no software that is going to make it secure! Your $1000 smartphone is not secure, but by adding a relatively inexpensive Ledger to that phone you take custody of your own assets with the world’s best security. 

And thus starts the hardware/software development cycle that grows in a spiral, just like the arrondissements here in Paris:

• We start with hardware 
• On top of that hardware, we build an operating system and development environment powering all kinds of applications 
• Collectively we build applications and services on top of this platform. We know you, the Ledger Development Community, will continue to amaze us with the creativity and ingenuity of what you build on Ledger’s platform.
• From the popularity of these services, the market grows, new users arrive 
• And ultimately, because the market has grown and evolved, it’s time to create new hardware for this bigger market, and the spiral starts another loop  

We have sold nearly 6 Million Ledger Nanos, and we will keep making and selling the Nano S Plus and Nano X for the years to come. Personally I think it’s IMPORTANT to have the world’s best security available worldwide for $80, that’s the Ledger Nano S Plus. And the world’s best security compatible with your mobile, available worldwide for $150, that’s the Ledger Nano X.

But we have heard from Ledger customers that what you are doing with your Ledger is more frequent, and more complex than ever before.  You are signing smart contracts and conducting business using your Ledger, and you are doing it several times a day.  Therefore you want a bigger screen with better ease-of-use on a beautiful device. 

And many of you have multiple Nanos and come up with all kinds of creative solutions for remembering which one is which. I spent 20 years working in Digital Music, from Winamp to Yahoo Music, to Beats and Apple Music, and right now reminds me a lot of the year 2002, the year the iPod came out. In 2002, I KNEW the Internet was the future, but the phone I had in my pocket was TERRIBLE at the Internet.  I had a phone that didn’t have the Internet, a computer where I did my Internet work, and an iPod for listening to music. Similarly, today I have a phone and a computer which are TERRIBLE at protecting my digital assets; and I have my LEDGER.

I see a new wave of people in need of digital asset security entering our space through the ambitious efforts of companies like Nike, Instagram, Starbucks, Live Nation and many others. Ledger Nano has sold millions and will sell many millions more but this is just the beginning. It’s time for the next generation of hardware from Ledger.

It’s time for the world of digital security to have its iPod moment.  

Learn everything you need to know about Ledger Stax here.