Multiple accounts on and off Ledger w/ mobile app

In another thread user @tsachi suggested, for some modicum of privacy:

If you want to prevent the other party from knowing your address, you can create a new account, and give that account to the payer. Once this account is funded, you can use the key to either move the funds into your “primary” account, or just leave it there.

So I’m trying this on the mobile app - it doesn’t appear I can add a second account on the existing Ledger. OK, so I try to make a new account and get new recovery information.

How do I then ‘use the key’ to move the funds? As far as I can tell that’s just recovering via BIP and it’s not moving anything other than restoring the wallet elsewhere. And certainly I can’t do that within the Algorand app itself. It’s already there.

Lastly, if none of this can be done - if there is no semi-privacy model, then does that mean we’re left with managing separate wallets for any set of transactions for which we don’t want the transacting party to, by default, know all our holdings / associate with our contact information?

Again, I’m not looking to defeat chain analysis or a Zcash privacy model. Just understand what the options are, if any. Thank you, -Pk

The ledger’s algorand application only allows 1 account per ledger seed. So if you want another algorand account on the ledger, you’ll have to switch to a different seed (ie: passphrase account).

It seems a big failing at the moment of the Ledger application. At least the local Algorand account system via kmd works like a hierarchical wallet, with new accounts derived from master key (https://developer.algorand.org/docs/features/accounts/#wallets).

Hopefully they’ll make it so we can add additional Algorand accounts on the ledger instead the fixed 1:1 account like it is now.

As far as privacy, it’s basically the same model as Ethereum. Explicit accounts and the same address is used repeatedly for transactions. Best practice for BTC is a new address for every receive and coins tracked through UTXOs on the past addresses. With ETH you can add new accounts at any time and transfer to them, same as with Algorand wallets - just not with a Ledger at the moment (not easily at least).

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First off - thank you so much for the detailed answer!

So this is the answer - transfer as in send them to myself. There is no importing anything.

This is my experience limitation because I’ve used BTC, BCH, ZEC, etc. all built on the BTC model and I never got into ETH. So now that you’ve said, politely, I’m a doofus. I think I understand now!

I sincerely appreciate it! Cheers, -Pk

Hi @pkactual

I can relate to your use case personally. I found this post by searching if we can create multiple accounts / Algo Wallets in Ledger. Looks like it not possible in Leder yet.

On a side note: I am founder of Payscript.io which is built for making payments and receiving payments. We just complete 3 months of Algorand Europe Accelrator Program so we support Algo Payments. Reference - https://youtu.be/Vedml0vxnVI

In your use case you can go to Payscript and do request payment to the user by entering their email address, the user will get a link to complete payment in Algo. You can use Payscript wallet as a temporary wallet for receiving payments and then move the funds to your ledger.

Ledger Live has been supporting multiple Algorand accounts for quite some time now.

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Is that for ledgers nano S as well? I could not find the option for it.

Also when we export account 1 of Algorand on a ledger using https://wallet.myalgo.com/ does that pose risk of exposing other Algo accounts on the ledger by any chance if the laptop being used for myalgo.com is compromised and account 1 export gets compromised.

  • I believe so but I’ve never tested it myself. You need to use the Ledger Live software.
  • You cannot export the secret key of a Ledger Nano (except the first time you use the Ledger and set it up). The key stays in the Ledger Nano. To my knowledge, myalgo.com only allows to export secret keys of non-Ledger accounts.

Disclaimer: Algorand makes no representations regarding the functioning or security of wallets, exchanges, or tools mentioned in the answer above, and disclaims any liability therefof. You are fully responsible for the security and the availability of your keys.

Dear Fabrice,

there is possible to enter a 25th word on Nano-S and Nano-X, see Advanced passphrase security – Ledger Support

The passphrase is essentially a password added to your 24-word recovery phrase that provides access to a whole new set of accounts .