Users across social media are dismayed after noticing Ledger, a major provider of hardware crypto wallets, announced last month it was sunsetting support for the Nano S.
In its Spring update on May 30, Ledger said it was transitioning away from the Ledger Nano S, and as a result, new applications, feature submissions and app updates would no longer be accepted. Another notice about transitioning to a new device was published in April.
The Nano S was launched in 2016, making some devices close to 10 years old.
The wallet provider also encouraged users to “upgrade to another Ledger device” and check “they have their 24-word Secret Recovery Phrase to maintain support.”
Users cotton on to announcement
The Spring announcement from Ledger was posted last month. However, it appears many users on social media have only just caught on, with comments drifting between anger, disappointment and the grim acceptance that other tech companies already engage in similar practices.
A user, under the handle Pcaversaccio, who works within the Ethereum ecosystem, said on Wednesday it was “Very uncool” for Ledger to “effectively force anyone to buy and enter the seed into a new device.”
“I understand you’re a business but don’t play with backwards compatibility guys, many rely on LNS. You’re one of the few trusted parties out there and now you start censoring new features & access because of business rationale,” Pcaversaccio said.
Ledger said in its April notice that the crypto landscape has evolved since the Nano S launched in 2016, and its “limited storage capacity is now a constraint,” and “unable to support most new use cases.”
A major bummer for users
X user Beau, a Pudgy Penguins safety project manager, said on Wednesday that the transition was a “major bummer” and a disappointing decision from Ledger.
“If you use the Nano S currently, make sure you have your seed phrase backed up and if necessary transfer assets to new wallets. Don’t want to be caught with a broken device after updates stop,” Beau said.
Failing to upgrade from the Nano S means users will no longer have access to the latest security features, compatibility and support for features and blockchain updates, according to Ledger.
Another user, under the handle Juan, who is part of the Nillion Ecosystem, questioned if Ledger is “just gonna deprecate people’s existing devices and force them to buy the new one? Am I reading this right? wtf?”
Users concerned about potential security risks
Some users asked whether the Ledger Nano S would still work, or if there could be a security risk for using the device without ongoing support.
Beau said he thinks, “It will probably still work, but the device won’t be receiving updates, meaning it’s more likely to break or have a security issue.”
Related: Hardware wallet Ledger launches offline recovery key for new wallets
Roman Semenov, a Tornado Cash developer who is currently considered at large by the US government after being charged in connection with his work on Tornado Cash, claimed he hadn’t updated his ledger in years.
“I stopped updating my ledger years ago when they started to roll out their cloud backup firmware feature. It doesn’t really need any updates to work,” he said.
Ledger didn’t immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.
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