In March of 2017, the hardware wallet company, Ledger raised $7M for their product: safe, easy to store cryptocurrency and physical wallets. Flash forward to the holiday season (last week), and social media was riddled with crypto-related posts. Mainly from excited investors, whose family got them a hardware wallet.
As we all know by now, no matter how “safe” or “protected” a paper/PC/mobile wallet, there will pretty much always remain the smallest possible chance of a hack. So, as much as Crypto Kitties, mining kits, ugly Ethereum and Bitcoin sweaters may have sold (and a LOT of these items sold well during the holiday), so did hardware wallets. As the crypto and altcoin worlds continue to woo and impress the masses, the need to protect and foster them too grows.
Considering some major and complex hacks occurred last year and continue to happen, it only makes sense investors would seek to move their own cryptocurrency offline. To utilize absolute control in the management of their coins and tokens.
At the same time, other investors peter to leave all their eggs in one basket. This can also make for easier and faster investments/trades. The common view, “if I can lose my “real” wallet, I’m sure I’d lose my crypto-wallet” is hard to debate, especially since this notion is coming from he or she whom know themselves best.
Nonetheless, the hardware wallet holiday fad seems to be just that: a fad. A stocking stuffer. But perhaps in the new year, as the crypto market continues its rise and expansion, the need for hard wallets will become more palatable. Or as the effects from the new United States’ tax bill kick in, and more of its, and other societies, start to feel disenfranchised by their systems of economy, items like this will be more commonplace.
