It’s the size of a credit card, but a new device just released by the cryptocurrency company Ledger may be the ideological opposite of that most essential physical piece of the conventional world financial system. The Ledger Stax is a hardware wallet device for storing, accessing, and sending cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. With a user-centric design that’s intended to ease people’s entree into the world of cryptocurrency, the device is a weapon in the crypto rebellion against centralized banking.
That’s the aim, anyway. To help more people wrap their heads around the intangible concept of cryptocurrency, Ledger has spent the past two years developing this newest offering in its line of physical crypto wallets with an emphasis on intuitiveness and usability. To do so, the company has partnered with Tony Fadell, a former Apple executive and cocreator of the iPod and the iPhone, two user-friendly devices that changed the way people interact with the digital world.
Fadell’s concept for the Ledger Stax wallet has been turned into a working device through a collaboration with Ledger and the London-based industrial and experience design firm Layer, which designed the device. Using e-ink and a wraparound touchscreen that spreads the display onto the spine of the device like a book’s title, the Ledger Stax is a pocket-size interface specifically for keeping digital assets in a physical place.
The crypto wallet is a new kind of device, born of the need to securely store the key codes that prove ownership of assets ranging from digital art to digital money. Losing the codes means losing access to the assets, so crypto wallets like Ledger’s offer a physical space to hold them. Of course losing a crypto wallet is essentially the same as losing a cash-filled wallet, but Ledger does offer a recovery method through what it calls a “secret recovery phrase.” Even so, holding crypto keys in a secure device may not protect them from other turbulence, such as the recent collapse of the crypto exchange FTX.
This all made the job of designing the Ledger Stax’s form and function an intriguing process for Benjamin Hubert, Layer’s creative director. “It’s still a young market in terms of hardware, and software to an extent,” he says. “I’m always interested in things that are changing quite rapidly, things that are intrinsic to how culture is shifting.”
This isn’t the first hardware for storing crypto assets, but Hubert argues it’s a step-change from others on the market, even Ledger’s other wallet devices, of which more than 5 million have been sold, according to the company. Those earlier devices are compact and straightforward with economical screens, whereas the Stax has a broader array of features and a more visual way to navigate the storage and transfer of digital assets. Swiping and tapping through animated menus, users can view and verify transaction information and sign the documents necessary to move assets from one holder to another, or even shop at stores that accept cryptocurrency.
Hubert compares the evolution to the device’s spiritual predecessor, the iPod. Ledger’s first devices were kind of like the screenless iPod Shuffle and the compact iPod Mini, he says, while the Stax wallet is more akin to the full-color-screened iPod Touch or even the iPhone. The DNA of that iPod development is easy to see in the Ledger Stax. “Hopefully a little bit but not too much,” Hubert says.
Even with all its mainstream attention, however, cryptocurrency is a bit more technical than a playlist of mp3s. A crypto wallet may still be in its early stages as a device many people will want or even understand; Hubert says bringing more thoughtful design to it now will help spur growth.
“My firm belief is that when you deliver something with a heightened user experience, you make the subject matter more accessible,” he says. “You make it easier to use, easier to understand, and that’s all wrapped up in design thinking.”
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