Ledger Nano S: First Step to Making Things Right – Ethereum App Size Decreased

With the reduced size of the Ethereum application, Ledger is taking an important first step in the commitment made in February. A firmware update (1.5.5) had taken up a lot of storage, leading to less space for installing applications. With this move, Ethereum users will enjoy more storage left for other apps.

At Ledger, we have always deeply cared for our community. When word reached us regarding the 1.5.5 firmware update having a strong impact on the capacity of the Ledger Nano S, we immediately started looking into what we could do to help open up more space.

We have been working hard on trying to provide some solutions all this time. The Ledger Nano S, the first and only independently certified hardware wallet, remains our iconic product after all. Today, we are happy to deliver the first improvement: the smaller Ethereum application.

What does this mean?

The Ethereum application was among the largest of apps, mostly because of the number of ERC20 tokens it contained. We have been able to drastically decrease the size of the application by externalizing the list of ERC20 tokens. It has actually been halved in size with the new updated application. Considering that the Ledger Nano S’ Secure Element’s storage is quite limited, this can have a significant impact and should lead to a lot more space for installing applications for Ethereum users.

To ensure having the most up-to-date version of the application, kindly uninstall all Ethereum (ETH) dependent applications, as well as the actual Ethereum (ETH) application. After installing the new version (v 1.2.4 and above), you will have more space.

This is only the first step of our commitment to provide more space for installing applications. Our aim is to have the Ledger Nano S back to a similar capacity as before the update.

Size of Apps

Equally, we wanted to take this opportunity to discuss the size of applications so that you can have a better idea of what to expect. While we cannot yet provide a definite sizing for each application, they can be divided into two different groups.

Group 1: stand-alone apps.
These applications use dedicated cryptographic functions and signature mechanisms relative to their blockchain protocol.

This group of apps tends to be larger in size.

As of today’s release, the following applications belong to this category:
Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), XRP (XRP), EOS (EOS), Stellar (XLM), Cardano (ADA), Tron (TRX), Monero (XMR), IOTA (MIOTA), NEO (NEO), Ontology (ONT), Tezos (XTZ), VeChain (VET), Waves (WAVES), Aeternity (AE), Aion (AION), Ark (ARK), Banano (BAN), Cosmos (ATOM), Decred (DCR), Factom (FCT), FIC (FIC), GroestlCoin (GRS), Hycon (HYC), Icon (ICX), Kin (KIN), Lisk (LSK), Nano (NANO), Nos, Particl (PART), QRL (QRL), Rise (RISE).

Group 2: Bitcoin / Ethereum dependent apps.
Applications belonging to this group share significant features with either the Ethereum or Bitcoin blockchain. Since they share many similarities, we opted to have its users install the Bitcoin or Ethereum application first, then install the crypto asset application of their choosing as to make optimal use of the hardware wallet’s storage.

This group of apps tends to be much smaller in size.

As of today’s release, the following apps are Bitcoin dependent:
Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Bitcoin Gold (BTG), Litecoin (LTC), Dogecoin (DOGE), Dash (DASH), Horizen (ZEN), Komodo (KMD), Stratis (STRAT), Peercoin (PPC), PIVX (PIVX), Viacoin (VIA), Vertcoin (VTC), Stealth (XST), Digibyte (DGB), Qtum (QTUM), Bitcoin Private (BTCP), Zcoin (XZC), Gamecredits (GAME), Zclassic (ZCL), Nix Platform (NIX), Stakenet (XSN), Zcash (ZEC).

And the following apps are Ethereum dependent:
Ethereum Classic (ETC), Expanse (EXP), POA (POA), RSK (RSK), UBIQ (UBIQ), Wanchain (WAN), kUSD (kUSD), Musicoin (MUSIC), Pirl (PIRL), Akroma (AKA), Atheios (ATH), Callisto (CLO), Ethersocial (ESN), Ellaism (ELLA), Ether1 (ETHO), Ethergem (EGEM), Gochain (GO), Mix (MIX), REOSC (REOSC), TomoChain (TOMO).

We will continue looking into ways to open up more space for storing applications and to improve our users’ experience when using our products. We want to thank our community for having provided us with feedback – this helps us to keep moving forward in the right direction.
This one is for all of you – we look forward to your next suggestions to provide the best product we can.