Today the UPS truck arrived at my door to deliver my brand new Ledger Nano S cold storage wallet. In fact I ordered two of them. I was pretty excited to open my package and set it up. 

I decided to document the experience and share my comments with my friends at Steemit. Perhaps this is a solution that you've been searching for as well.

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## Top Dog in Cold Storage Wallets
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The Ledger Wallet line is considered to be one of the top end offline cold storage wallets that offer maximum security of your coins (short of using paper wallets that is). If you want to learn more I would encourage everyone to check out their site directly at https://www.ledgerwallet.com/. 

I should also talk about pricing and availability. The Ledger Nano S sells for 58 Euros and is shipped out of France. The price is very reasonable for what you get. *However* they are horribly back ordered. I imagine this could get a lot worse as cryptocurrencies become more popular. You can also buy these from re-sellers like Amazon but people are charging 100s of dollars knowing the backlog.

I ordered mine in early June and was told it would not ship until mid July. It did ship a bit early and I did pay for express shipping so perhaps that helped. I wanted to *beat* the rush. Their website now says orders will not ship until September, Yikes!

I ordered the *Duo Edition* which is just two Nanos. This is so I could set them up as identical wallets in case I misplace one or out of convenience for couples or whatever

At the end of the article I've also linked to Ledger's YouTube overview video of the Nano S in case you are interested.


## The Packaging
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As I order two units, the white bubble padded UPS envelope came packed with two individual Ledger Nano S boxes.

The Ledger packaging is pretty slick. The box is nice and sturdy and everything fits nicely inside. It's very presentable and professional looking overall. It reminded me much of Apple's packaging for their phone and tablets.

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## The Contents
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Everything inside was really well packed and absolutely nothing looked damaged, not even the exterior packaging. This is no small feat considering my order crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Europe to North America.

Inside you get the Nano S of course and a bunch of other stuff. The next important thing is the USB cable. It's a standard Android type mini USB to regular USB cable. This is a necessary connection as the Nano S does not have it's own internal power. It runs off the USB connection.

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Also included is a key chain strap and an alternate over the neck lanyard. I attached the key chain strap to mine. There is also some documentation although most of your reference info will be by visiting their website.

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The documentation is pretty light although you don't really need much. The installation is super easy and their website has a ton more reference information.

There are three cards in the package:
- Getting Started Guide
- Notice Card
- Recovery Phrase Card

The getting started guide basically just refers you to their website. While the notice card states that there is no anti tamper proof seals on the box because they are not needed as the unit comes essentially as a generic device. It only becomes specific to you once you first initialize it. 

Finally, the recovery phrase card is the most important item. This is where to **MUST** write down the recovery phrase during the initialization. This allows you to recover your wallet even if you lose yours. You simply get a new device and during the initialization step choose to recover an existing wallet instead. You'll be prompted to enter your phrase and voila! It's back.

This is essentially how I set up my 2nd Nano S so that it was a clone of the first. Now I have two identical wallets (which I verified access the same account after I put a few bucks in).

## The Set-Up
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This part was extremely simple to do. There was literally only 4 simple steps.
- Choose PIN code
- Confirm PIN code
- Copy down the Recovery Phrase
- Confirm the Recovery Phrase

Once you first plug in the device to your PC there's a welcome message and it explains how to utilize the two (LEFT and RIGHT) buttons to navigate/interface with the Nano S.

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After you've connected the first step is to select a PIN CODE. They used to be only 4 digit but the latest version permits 4-8 digits. I chose 8 for max security.

After the PIN it provides you with the Recovery Phrase to copy down. You don't create a phrase it randomly selects 24 words for you. You only need to copy them down. After this you are tested by the unit to ensure you've copied them correctly. It will ask you to select the word for a given position. So word 2 is xxxxx? Word 15 is xxxxxx? Etc.

Then you are all done my friend. The next step is to interface with your wallet through the Chrome App for Ledger Wallet. I won't go into it here but you just need to install the Ledger Wallet Chrome Browser App. Whenever you plug in your device you can see your balances and send/receive funds. 
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## The Final Word
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I'm really impressed with the Ledger Nano S wallet. I probably would be even more impressed if I were more of a crypto guy. It seems like a really great option for those of us more concerned about security than say convenience. 

One other great feature is that your device with be wiped and rendered useless if you (or someone else) inputs an incorrect PIN CODE in 3 times in a row. This is a great security feature if yours is lost or stolen. You can recover everything with a new Nano wallet and your original Recovery Phrase. **So don't lose your recovery phrase - ever!**

Thanks for reading....

<center>Free In Thought, 2017</center>
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Intro Video for Nano S from Ledger YouTube channel:
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Images and Audio used are CC0 Public Domain unless noted or clearly original

Writing is original - Always
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My YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcyLlCSyhszDb73eG2P7teA
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