It doesn't have to be different. Being paranoid is too much, but being extra careful is not wrong. The more hands the wallet goes through before it reaches its final destination the bigger the chance that somewhere along the line there is a rogue employer. These chances are still small and insignificant but nonetheless they are still there.
I wouldn't compare a hardware wallet that holds your funds that are irreversible with a regular piece of hardware that simply malfunctions and you return it to the store and get a new one. If a hardware wallet malfunctions because it was tempered with, your funds are gone and nobody except the new address owner of those funds can get them back to you.
Topic: Hardware wallets as a measure of mainstream adoption....? - page 2. (Read 286 times)
(When you bought your device on Amazon you bought it from Ledger, so no risk)
We say it because you need to be a bit paranoid in the crypto world, but when it will be used massively we won't need to be. When you buy a smartphone you don't buy it from the manufacturer but from the retailer and you don't check if your phone has tampered. Right? Or you don't trust your local retailer to sell your hardware wallet but you trust it to sell you fake meat.
So, it will be the same, why should it be different?
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Buying hardware wallets at a physical store would go against the principles we all preach and try to respect that says that hardware wallets should only be bought from the official site or an official re seller.
We say it because you need to be a bit paranoid in the crypto world, but when it will be used massively we won't need to be. When you buy a smartphone you don't buy it from the manufacturer but from the retailer and you don't check if your phone has tampered. Right? Or you don't trust your local retailer to sell your hardware wallet but you trust it to sell you fake meat.
So, it will be the same, why should it be different?
Well, I bought my Ledger from Amazon and it came factory sealed--yeah, I suppose if I was paranoid I'd start thinking that some hacker along the distribution chain could have planted some malware on it, but I really don't think that happened.
Even if that were to happen, any tampering would be overwritten by a firmware update. As long as you confirm the firmware is sourced from the actual manufacture (i.e. Ledger Live, Trezor.io/Satoshi Labs, etc.) you'll be safe. There's still a risk that the hardware wallet as a whole is a forgery or a counterfeit, but if so it would not likely connect to the real manufacturer's apps, and should be easy to spot.
It would certainly help for mass adoption but why trust a third party electronic store?!
Well, I bought my Ledger from Amazon and it came factory sealed--yeah, I suppose if I was paranoid I'd start thinking that some hacker along the distribution chain could have planted some malware on it, but I really don't think that happened. And manufacturers often don't distribute their own products, and I don't see why it should be any different for hardware wallet makers. As long as the product hasn't been obviously tampered with, I think I'd be safe in trusting a purchase from a physical retailer.And who's to say that some rogue employee at the manufacturer couldn't sabotage the hardware? Pretty much anything like that could happen, so I suppose it all depends on your baseline level of trust in people and companies delivering the products they promise.
Best Buy used to sell the Ledger Nano S but they don't seem to have them in stock anymore. Not sure how up-to-date that information is.
I took a look at the link, but I don't think those were ever available in their stores--they probably sold them online from their warehouse or however they do it. That's kind of what Amazon does, and that's not my point. I'm wondering if and when we'll ever see them on store shelves.
Best Buy used to sell the Ledger Nano S but they don't seem to have them in stock anymore. Not sure how up-to-date that information is.
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/ledger-nano-s-cryptocurrency-hardware-wallet/6298661.p?skuId=6298661
Buying hardware wallets at a physical store would go against the principles we all preach and try to respect that says that hardware wallets should only be bought from the official site or an official re seller. It would certainly help for mass adoption but why trust a third party electronic store?!
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/ledger-nano-s-cryptocurrency-hardware-wallet/6298661.p?skuId=6298661
Buying hardware wallets at a physical store would go against the principles we all preach and try to respect that says that hardware wallets should only be bought from the official site or an official re seller. It would certainly help for mass adoption but why trust a third party electronic store?!
I haven't seen any stores with crypto related stuff. I've seen a couple of bitcon ATMs at gas stations and a mall, but no hardware wallets for sale in a retail establishment. I tend think you're sort of right about the prospect; but I suspect mass adoption will lead to us seeing Ledgers and Trezors in BestBuy. It would be nice to see a big box store take the initiative and start selling them sooner.
This thread has nothing to do with any particular hardware wallet; it's just a question I've had on my mind for the past week or so.
I haven't visited an electronics retailer like Best Buy or the like in a few years, and I rarely shop at big box outlets like Target or WalMart, but I'm assuming that you wouldn't be able to find anything crypto-related in those stores. You can find tons of stuff that has to do with money in those places (safes, leather wallets, coin wrappers, accounting ledgers, etc.), but I'm wondering if and when we'll start to see these places sell things like hardware wallets. IMO that would be a pretty good indication that crypto is moving toward being mainstream.
Note: I'm well aware that online retailers DO sell hardware wallets. I'm more interested in retailers with physical stores. In order to get shelf space in any of them, a product sort of has to be popular and have a chance of selling in a reasonable volume.
Two questions: Are there any places that sell hardware wallets (or anything related)? And if not, do you think we're ever going to get to the point where this is a reality?
I haven't visited an electronics retailer like Best Buy or the like in a few years, and I rarely shop at big box outlets like Target or WalMart, but I'm assuming that you wouldn't be able to find anything crypto-related in those stores. You can find tons of stuff that has to do with money in those places (safes, leather wallets, coin wrappers, accounting ledgers, etc.), but I'm wondering if and when we'll start to see these places sell things like hardware wallets. IMO that would be a pretty good indication that crypto is moving toward being mainstream.
Note: I'm well aware that online retailers DO sell hardware wallets. I'm more interested in retailers with physical stores. In order to get shelf space in any of them, a product sort of has to be popular and have a chance of selling in a reasonable volume.
Two questions: Are there any places that sell hardware wallets (or anything related)? And if not, do you think we're ever going to get to the point where this is a reality?
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