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Signing · Hardware

Signing with a Ledger or Trezor: step by step

Signing with a hardware device has one advantage over every other method: your key never leaves the device at any point, not even during signing. The computer only carries the message across and collects the result.

October 1, 2026 · 4-minute read

With Trezor

  1. Connect the device and open it in the official desktop app.
  2. Go into the account whose ownership you want to prove.
  3. Find the sign & verify message option, usually in the account’s advanced settings.
  4. Select the address, type the message and click sign.
  5. Read the device screen and confirm there. That screen is the only reliable source of what you are signing.
  6. Copy the resulting signature.

With Ledger

With Ledger the signature is requested from a compatible app or page, with the device connected and the relevant coin app open on it. The procedure is essentially the same: the request is prepared on the computer, the text appears on the device screen, and you confirm there.

The rule that never fails: what counts is what you see on the device screen, not what you see on the computer. If the computer says one thing and the device another, the device is right and the computer is compromised. If the device doesn’t show you readable text, don’t confirm.

What you should never see

  • A request to type your recovery phrase on the computer or on a website. The phrase is only ever typed on the device.
  • A signature whose contents the device can’t display.
  • An authorisation for an application to manage your coins, when what you wanted was to sign text.
  • Urgency. Nobody legitimate needs you to sign in the next five minutes.
That first point is the most common scam associated with hardware signing. You are told that «verifying the wallet» requires entering the phrase during the process. It never does: if the device works and you can sign, the phrase isn’t needed at all.

If the device won’t start or you don’t remember the PIN

Then you can’t sign and ownership has to be established another way: with addresses, movements you can point to, emails from the exchange you sent from, or the device’s own purchase invoice. They are all in what counts as proof when you can’t get in.

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