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Bitcoin Global News (BGN)

January 07, 2019 -- ADVFN Crypto NewsWire -- When you think of cryptocurrency hardware wallets, what comes to your mind first? For many, the answer would be the extra security which is afforded to the user since he or she can take his or her crypto assets off of the internet entirely.

Over the weekend, however, Ledger, which is one of the top two trusted producers of hardware wallets next to Trezor, announced that their next model will be Bluetooth enabled, which means that users will be able to connect their wallets directly to their phones.

In their reaction piece on the subject, CoinDesk claimed that one of Ledger’s primary reasons for this move was the realization that most people rely on their mobile phones above actual computers for their computing needs. While certain recent research does seem to corroborate this, it only does so to a point. Desktop computing is not obsolete, but has been fairly outpaced.

Because of this, launching a mobile-enabled hardware wallet would seem to be a wise decision at this point. In CoinDesk’s article, Ledger executives were even quoted as saying that essentially none of their security measures will be put at risk by adding this Bluetooth compatibility.

Lending credence to this claim is the fact that users’ private keys will still be stored locally on their devices. In addition to this, since the new model will allow third party developers to develop mobile applications for the Ledger platform, the team plans to require each app to have its’ own private keys to further protect user devices.

Even so, since Bluetooth devices can be hacked in a simpler fashion than those which are not connected in the same way, only time will tell if Ledger’s promises pan out.

By: BGN Editorial Staff