Ledger: Can I Export an Existing Account from Polkadot-JS UI to my Ledger Device? Print
Modified on: Wed, 8 Mar, 2023 at 7:06 PM
While it might be possible in theory to restore your 12-word mnemonic seed on the Ledger (see instructions here), it would defy the purpose of a hardware wallet.
The added security of a hardware wallet comes from the fact that your private keys are never exposed online. Therefore, it makes much more sense to send your funds from a hot wallet to your Ledger, rather than importing your existing mnemonic seed to it.
Moving a stash account to your Ledger
If you're reading this, you are probably wondering if you can move your DOT stash account to your Ledger (or another hardware wallet) without having to unbond your funds and miss out on staking rewards for 28 days.
Since you can only transfer transferable funds, this is unfortunately not possible. What you could do as a workaround, is:
- Direct your staking rewards to your Ledger account, to begin accumulating them there, instead of adding them to your existing stash. How to change the destination account of your staking rewards.
- Unbond only part of your tokens so you can continue earning with the other part during the 28 day unbonding period. Once unbonded send the first part to your Ledger and stake them there. Then unbond the remaining part. This way you won't completely miss out on earning rewards during this time. How to unstake/unbond your tokens.
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