How to Store Your Tezos XTZ in Your Ledger Nano S and Delegate with TezBox Wallet

Published in

Cryptium Labs

7 min readNov 14, 2018

Updated on: 15.11.2018

The Ledger Nano S, a popular hardware wallet for cryptocurrencies, appeared in one of my previous articles (How to Delegate Tezzies (Tezos’ XTZ) with Your Ledger Nano S — With Initial Setup & Screenshots) and I always recommend keeping your funds, specially when they are large volumes, in cold wallets as opposed to hot and custodial wallets (e.g. the ones exchanges offer) for security reasons.

Nonetheless, I acknowledge that for most Tezos holders, making a delegation with funds stored in the Ledger Nano S might be significantly inconvenient and overwhelming, because it requires certain familiarity with the command-line, as well as having to install and run Tezos in your device.

Luckily, the developers behind the TezBox Wallet, one of the most popular software wallets in the Tezos ecosystem, have noticed and developed the support for the Ledger S Nano.

How to Delegate Tezos with TezBoz Wallet and Ledger Nano S

Preparing Your Ledger Nano S for Tezos

Preliminary Requirements

As a rule of thumb, verify and do not trust. Check the website domains and app providers.

Before continuing, check that:

You have an official Ledger, and bought it from the official store https://www.ledgerwallet.com. Do not use second-hand Ledgers or buy them from unauthorised retailers, as they could’ve been compromised.
You have the Ledger Manager installed. Ledger Manager is a Chrome extension. You can find it on Chrome’s Web Store. Check that under the extension name it says offered by www.ledgerwallet.com. There have been extensions or apps that have tried to impersonate the original ones.

The firmware of your ledger is up-to-date. If you’re updating the firmware now, note that your installed apps will be erased, and you will have to re-install them. Don’t worry, your funds remain, you just have to reinstall the wallets and you’ll have access to them as usual.
You have enough space the on device for installing the Tezos Wallet.

Setting Up Your Ledger Nano S for Tezos

Open the Ledger Manager and click on Show developer items (bottom right corner). Scroll down the list until you find Tezos Wallet (developer) currently version 1.0.0 and install it. Will prompt on your Ledger to allow this installation. After installation, you should be able to see the Tezos Wallet and the ꜩ icon:

2. Open the app on your Ledger and you will see on your device’s screen something similar to:

Your Ledger is now ready. Leave it connected with the Tezos Wallet application open.

Downloading and Installing TezBox Native Desktop App

At the time of writing, I could not get the Web App version of TezBox to detect my Ledger, I have submitted the issue to the developers, they have replied saying that for some users, reinstalling the Tezos app on Ledger fixed the issue. Nonetheless, the UI between the web and desktop version are almost identical, so the steps are the same.

This time, I have downloaded the desktop native app on my MacOS.

To do so, visit https://tezbox.com and click on the version that matches your device’s OS:

2. I chose MacOS, which lead me to this website: https://github.com/tezbox/desktop-wallet/releases/tag/2.0.1

3. Click on TexBox Wallet MacOS and it will download an application. Once downloaded, open it and drag the TezBox app to your Applications folder.

4. Double-click on the TezBox app to fire it (you might need to visit System Preferences → Security & Privacy → General → Under Allow Apps downloaded from → GitHub and allow opening the app). Once open, the wallet looks like:

Linking Your Ledger Nano S to the TezBox Wallet Application

Make sure your Ledger Nano S is connected and the Tezos Wallet app on your Ledger is open:

2. On the TezBox Wallet application, click on Link your TezBox:

3. Then click again on Link TezBox, which will prompt:

4. Check your Ledger Nano S, it will show your TZ1 address. Click the right button to confirm it:

Check your Public Key or TZ1 address on your Ledger

5. Which will prompt a confirmation on your TezBox Wallet application. Then click on continue and it lead you to your Wallet dashboard on TezBox:

Funding Your Wallet

Under MAIN you will find your TZ1 address. If you have your funds in e.g. a wallet on an exchange (e.g. Gate.io) or any other wallet, make sure you transfer the XTZ to this address. Always double-check this TZ1 address, else you might be sending your funds to the wrong one. To be safe, try first with very small amounts, e.g. 1 XTZ.
Once you have made the transaction, wait a bit until it gets processed by the Tezos blockchain. Refresh your TezBox app time to time:

Making a Delegation with TezBox

The delegation steps on the Desktop application are exactly the same, in fact the UI is almost identical. By linking your Ledger, the only difference is that you will need to sign the transactions, every time you create a delegation, change it, or every time to transfer funds.

During this guide, so you will need to check the Ledger and click the right button time-to-time, so leave it connected to your computer.

Click on Add Account, it will prompt:

2. Click on Yes, Continue:

Confirm the transaction on your Ledger Nano S

3. Take a look at your Ledger’s screen, you will see:

Sign the account creation with your Ledger

4. Press the right button to confirm it:

5. Note that it will take some time until your operation has been included in the Tezos blockchain. Until then, your Account1 will have a (!) on the avatar. This account is your KT1 account. Let’s set a baker for your delegation by going to the Delegate tab.

6. Select a Baker for your Delegation. If you wish to delegate to us, our baker address is tz1eEnQhbwf6trb8Q8mPb2RaPkNk2rN7BKi8, after selecting Custom on the list, you can copy paste this address. Then click on Update Delegate:

7. Which will require you to confirm once again on your Ledger Nano S:

8. Press the right button on your Ledger:

9. Wait a minute, you have 0 balance on your KT1 address, so you just made a delegation with 0 XTZ! Your funds were transferred to your TZ1 account, but now let’s send some from the TZ1 to your KT1. Click on “Main” account, under the Send tab:

10. Fill in the Destination Address with your KT1 address. Again, double-check that it’s the right KT1 address, if you end up sending it to another one you will lose them! Once done, click on Send:

11. TezBox will remind you once more to double-check before. If the details are correct, click on Yes, send it! It will once more prompt the Ledger window and you will need to confirm it by pressing the button on your Ledger. Once confirmed: