Ledger launches Blue hardware wallet with support for smart contracts and multiple cryptocurrencies

French bitcoin hardware wallet Ledger has launched a new product: Ledger Blue.

The Ledger Blue is hailed as "the most advanced hardware wallet on the market today." This product is very different from Ledger's previous products. Blue is equipped with a 320×480 resolution touch screen, Bluetooth and NFC functions, can be used with one hand, and can run a variety of different applications.

In a video call, Ledger CEO Eric Larchevêque spoke to CoinDesk about the evolution of their product, design philosophy and target market.

Support smart contracts

In December 2014, Ledger launched its first product, the Ledger Nano, a small, secure and low-cost hardware wallet.

Earlier this year, Ledger launched the Ledger Nano S, a wallet that has a small LED screen and supports other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum and Litecoin. Ultimately, the Nano S is considered a more affordable product than its competitor Trezor wallet.

Ledger Blue was launched to address an increasingly complex ecosystem, including smart contracts, token exchanges, and other types of asset transactions—enabling multiple participants and variables to participate in transactions and contracts and be verified by transaction signatories.

Larchevêque said:

“If you want to develop smart contracts on Ethereum, it’s been difficult to verify all of them on a screen before. But now with the arrival of Ledger Blue, you can create your own application to verify a specific smart contract.”

The Blue app can display multiple data fields for inspection before final confirmation, which is a critical step before the contract is automatically executed.

Larchevêque said:

“With blockchain technology, a lot of the security is reliant on this endpoint — if you can see what you’re signing on a screen, that’s really important.”

The Ledger Blue also supports multiple cryptocurrencies: the device’s technical specifications currently support Bitcoin, Ethereum, Zcash, Dash, and Monero, with the ability to integrate with other wallet providers such as Electrum and Mycelium.

According to Ledger's description of its custom Blockchain Open Ledger Operating System (BOLOS), the different cryptocurrency processing applications supported by Blue are isolated from each other, and one cryptocurrency cannot access the memory or storage used by another cryptocurrency. This means that even if one of the cryptocurrencies is compromised, the others are still safe.

For technically savvy people

Ledger Blue was also created with the principles of open source in mind, which can be used in both software and hardware design.

While most smart devices are completely sealed, Blue's assembly is designed to come apart.

In a video demonstration, Larchevêque showed the rapid separation and reunion of Blue’s internal components in a use case, a technology choice that reflects the product’s likely target at tech-savvy end users.

“We already know that crypto enthusiasts want a powerful, best-in-class hardware wallet. However, the new user we are looking to reach with this product is the enterprise customers…who are already using our products to build blockchain solutions.”

Customers that have signed on include Monax and Stratumn, two enterprise blockchain platforms that will use Blue as a hardware endpoint for their services.

Through the enterprise SDK included in the product, Ledger also hopes to attract developers to the platform.

At €229 before tax, Ledger Blue is definitely high-end, but it looks like it will offer a completely different user experience than what’s currently on the market. Once the first batch of units arrive in the hands of users, we should be able to hear some comparative feedback. Pre-orders are already open, with delivery expected on December 18.