Ledger unveils Atom, an Android-based signer built to sit beside your phone

Ledger has a new piece of hardware, and at first glance you could mistake it for a smartphone. The company announced Atom, an Android-based signer designed to work alongside your phone rather than replace it. The timing is awkward. Ledger is still dealing with a supply-chain attack in Asia that has reportedly been linked to over $86 million in stolen crypto. What Atom actually is Atom breaks from that formula. It looks almost exactly like an ordinary Android phone, which is a strange visual choice for a company whose brand rests on its devices being different from phones. The idea is that the device is dedicated to signing transactions and is paired with the phone you already carry. Think of it as a second handset with a single, very serious job: approving the moves your main phone asks to make. The launch also fits a broader vocabulary shift at Ledger. The company has moved away from calling its products “hardware wallets” and now calls them “signers,” a label meant to put the cryptographic function front and center. Ledger has not yet disclosed Atom’s specifications, pricing or availability. Anyone hoping to preorder one this week will have to wait. The supply-chain problem in th...