Manage authorities using a Ledger device

in HiveDevslast year

Hive Ledger Wallet just got a new update with the most requested feature. From now on, you can manage your authorities using a Ledger device.


Hive Ledger Wallet is a new app that supports Hive on Ledger hardware wallets.

Never heard about it? Check my previous posts:


Despite the drama around the latest recovery mechanism introduced by Ledger, people are still using it daily as it seems to be the best solution in terms of hardware wallets for Hive. And it's the only one we get so far, so I'm going to keep improving it.

Public keys and authorities

When you associate your account with Ledger, you simply change your keys for those derived on the Ledger device. The advantage is that you never see your private keys and you can't leak it. The disadvantage is that you must use the device to sign every transaction which might not be super convenient for everyday blogging. That's why I recommend keeping Owner and Active keys on the device and keeping your "standard" Posting key role to use it with the Hive Keychain extension.

But what if you already associated your device and replaced all the keys? The new feature comes to the rescue. You can easily add or remove any key or account authority assigned to your account.

Add your previous posting key to use your account with Hive Keychain

  1. Find your public key. The easiest way is to check your old Public key in Hive Keychain. Click Menu -> Accounts -> Manage accounts and click on a Public key to copy it.



  2. Add the old key into your account under "Posting role"



  3. Verify other authorities and weights. For most users it should be 1, if you are not sure, then you should definitely set it to 1.



  4. Save changes by broadcasting account_update transaction.



  5. That's it, you can use your old posting key stored safely in Keychain.

Be careful playing with authorities

Please be aware that it is not a coincidence that Authorities management was placed under the Advanced tab as playing with it may end up bad if you don't know what are you doing.

Do not change the threshold or the key/authority weight if you do not intend to do it. And be aware that if you remove the owner key or change the threshold, you might lose access to your account.

What next

  • we still have a couple of ledger-related tasks in our backlog for hiveledger.io, some UI/UX improvements like transaction history filters, and more advanced features like conversions, internal market or withdrawal routes.
  • support for Ledger Stax, the newest model which awaits it's premiere with a much larger e-ink screen
  • adding support for Ledger in other wallets like Vessel

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I’m really hoping to learn more I’m hoping to anyone who can teach me please

Just read a lot, interact with people and use it like any other social media platform ;)

Ledger sucks

but still good for all those Ledger users, except when Ledger "accidentally suddenly" sucks again

Thanks!

Thank you for this important feature! I have been wondering how to change keys if my Ledger or seed gets stolen.

Well, you need your device to sign a transaction so you better keep your device safe.

I’m a bit out of practice.

Apparently Ledger does not seem to have the secret password wallets Trezor has and even if it had those passwords may not take a long time to brute force for wallets if it is done next to a powerful full node or a list of all public keys with non-empty balance and the cracker has access to the seed phrase.

However if the seed phrase was hidden in an uninteresting object and preferably in encrypted format and that object went missing, I could have a chance to save my wallet before the thief gets my liquid and savings.

I don't really understand if that's a question or not.