After my bad experience with crypto I decided to buy a hardware crypto wallet.

In this case I bought the Ledger Nano S and why this one?

• It was cheap, so good to start with. I wanted to get practical experience with the device before buying an expensive one (if even needed)
• Support for Ethereum, Polygon, Tron and Binance Smart Chain and these are the blockchains I currently use

Setting up the device

Setting up the device is pretty simple, just follow the instructions given when going to http://start.ledgerwallet.com. I did the following steps:

Note: Be sure to connect the device with your computer with the USB!

• Download Ledger Live app for Windows and install

• Just follow the steps to create a pincode and the seedphrase (NEVER give these passwords away!)
  This takes some time because there are 24 words you have to write down and afterwards you have to verify each word on the device
• Update Firmware (if you do not do this the Binance Smart Chain application is not available within the apps)

• Install “Binance Smart Chain” app (in Manager of Ledger Live on Windows)

Note: The Ethereum app will also be installed because the Binance SmartChain application also needs the Ethereum application.

After the applications are installed you can create an account on the BSC.

Creating an Account

Now you can create a new account (wallet address). Click on Manage my accounts

Select the BNB and confirm this on your Ledger wallet (by pressing both buttons at the same time on the device)

I named it “Roger Ledger”, select it and press “Add new Account”

You should see the confirmation screen and click “Done”.

In the Account Menu on Ledger Live you can see your newly created Account. You also see that there is no BNB balance on it yet.

Connecting with MetaMask

To be able to sent and receive coins I use MetaMask and you can connect your MetaMask with the hardware wallet.

• Click upper right button and select “Connect Hardware Wallet”
  (Be sure your Ledger is connected)

• Choose Ledger and press Continue

• Then you will see a list of addresses like the ones below

However I do not see “Roger Ledger” Account in the list so I did not know which address to choose.

Note: Later it turned out that all these addresses are ok and created on the device, but I did not know that at the time.

• Go back to Ledger Live and select your created account.

• And select the editing icon in the upper right corner

And when you click on the Advanced settings, you see the actual address of the Account

• Now you can go back to your MetaMask settings and select the Account to use. This was the first in my list.

After you have checked the correct address you will get

Note that it is named Ledger1. You can change this by selecting the Account and change the name. I did that and changed it to “Roger Ledger”.

Some notes:

• The newly created BSC address can also be viewed on bscscan.com
• There is no BNB value within your wallet yet, so your are not able to make any transactions with this account
• The coins are NOT actually on your Ledger but are on the BSC blockchain. The hardware wallet only contains the private key to approve transactions

Sending tokens to the wallet

So you need to sent some coins to the wallet. I sent some BNB from one MetaMask account to this newly created account. You can also sent some BNB from Binance or any other exchange you use. Just fill in the correct wallet address and BSC network.

On Binance.com I can now sent my first $BUSD tokens to my Ledger Wallet.

Just fill in the correct address, the BSC network and hit Withdraw.

Within 2 mins the first $20 are on my wallet!

Topup your account with BNB through MetaMask

I use MetaMask and another account to sent BNB to the newly created address.

• You can select “Transfer Between Accounts”

• Choose your Ledger Account and fill in the amount of $BNB that you want to sent. And of course approve the transaction.

After you have BNB in your new wallet, you are able to make transactions with it.

Sending from your wallet

So let’s say you want to sent some BNB to another wallet?

Note: This is just an example of a transaction, you can do this for all other kind of transactions you normally do with your other MetaMask accounts!

I will describe several scenario’s.

Device not connected

In this scenario the device is not connected to your computer.

• Try to sent BNB to another wallet address

• Select “Transfer between my accounts”
• Just select another wallet address, and Confirm
• You will get an error message that the device is not connected

• So the transaction fails

Note that this also indicates that your device is used to sign the transaction and makes it far more safe than a wallet that is on the web. You need to have the device to be able to make transactions with your account.

Now connect the device with the USB.

Transaction with connected device

After you connect the device you have to enter the pincode.

• When you confirm the device will show:
  “Review transaction”
• Press right button, and the amount is shown: “Amount BNB 0.001”
• The address is shown
• The Network BSC
• Max Fees BNB 0.000105
• The Accept and Send

Because for the first time I was too slow with approving, the transaction failed again. So you need to go quick through these steps.

After I approved the step on the device the transaction succeeded.

So planning to put more BSC coins on my Ledger and work more with this offline wallet and be more safe, hopefully.

Last important notes

Note that such a hardware wallet does not protect you against:

• Bad smart contracts
• Coins that you have staked on a project that get hacked