A brief comparison of hardware wallets Nano S and Trezor
Today, I will be offering a brief review of hardware wallets. Hardware wallets are arguably the safest and most secure way to move your coins around on the network. The two most popular hardware wallets are Ledger Nano S and the Trezor. I have and use both.
Many of the things the differentiated these two wallets have gone away in the last few months, as the companies race to compete. Both devices now offer seed restoration on the device, preventing your all important mnemonic from passing through your computer. Both support ETH, ETC, and ERC-20 tokens through MyEtherWallet. Probably only a matter of time until MEW adds EXP as well. And of course, both devices have a screen so you can verify the transaction before signing. Now, let's get into some differences.
Coin support -- Trezor's web wallet supports BTC, LTC, DASH, and ZEC. The Nano S supports all those coins and also STRAT, XRP, and DOGE. I've found the Trezor web app to be a bit better than Ledger's, so personally I only use my Nano S with MEW, and use my Trezor for non Ethereum coins.
Passphrase support -- Both wallets support a BIP39 passphrase, but in a bit different manner. With the Trezor, you need to enter your passphrase each time you unlock the device, using your computer (small security vulnerability). With the Nano S, you have the option to persist the passphrase on the device, and the passphrase is entered through the device, never passing through your computer. Also, the Nano S has an option to setup a decoy PIN. The decoy PIN will unlock the seed without the passphrase, which you can fill with a small amount of funds for plausible deniability. Then the secure PIN will unlock the seed with the passphrase, your main stash. For me, the Nano S is the winner in this category, but you should recognize that if you aren't forced to enter your passphrase often you might forget it, an unrecoverable mistake!
Token support -- Trezor firmware 1.5.0, released today, introduced better support for ERC-20 tokens. Previously, token transfers did not display any readable information on the device, it simply asked you to sign the raw transaction data. The reason is that it is not a typical value transfer on the network, it is invocation of a smart contract. With this latest update, however, the Trezor now displays the token name, amount, and recipient on the device. This is important to protect against malware in the browser altering the transaction on the way to the USB bus. This feature is not yet active on the Nano S, but it is in the works.
Overall, both are awesome products, and your choice likely depends on your specific needs. One last consideration is that the Trezor 2 will be coming somewhat soonish. Hope you find this helpful, cheers y'all!
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