According to Foresight News and The Block, Ledger's Chief Technology Officer Charles Guillemet stated that due to hardware memory limitations, the Nano S wallet cannot support multiple applications and modern security features, and will gradually stop software updates for this device. The model was officially retired in 2022 but still provides limited support.
Guillemet pointed out that LedgerOS and core applications like Bitcoin and Ethereum have occupied most of the Nano S's 320KB storage space, making it almost impossible to support functions such as multi-application running, plain text signing, secure transaction verification synchronization, and native Uniswap exchanges. This means the Nano S will struggle to meet the security and usability requirements of today's increasingly complex crypto applications.
Users can still use the Nano S to perform basic BTC and ETH sending, receiving, and exchange operations, and private keys can be recovered through 24 seed phrases on other new Ledger devices or wallets compatible with the BIP-39 standard. Ledger recommends that users transition to new models like the Nano S Plus launched in 2022 as soon as possible.
After the announcement, some users expressed dissatisfaction, believing Ledger's move is "forcing users to buy new devices" and that data migration poses potential security risks. However, industry professionals, including Aave contributor Marc Zeller, believe that discontinuing support for old hardware is an industry norm, as chips have a limited lifespan, though Ledger should have stopped selling the Nano S earlier.
