So I got my Tangem 2 wallets (cards) today and thought I'd share my experience setting them up, as that can be the most daunting task about them.

I ordered the version 2 cards and they arrived in five days, shipped regular mail from Hong Kong. I am thrilled about the time frame for shipment. Having read many nightmares with the card packaging seal being damaged (at customs or in transit), I was apprehensive about what state my box would arrive in. Was pleasantly surprised by a box-in-box packaging with the inner box actually holding the Tangem card not having a tamper proof seal, but being shrink wrapped in clear plastic. There was no evidence of tampering anywhere. Even if there had been, the way Tangem cards work, you should be able to reset the card to factory settings after initially setting it up, and your keys will be regenerated and the likelihood of someone having access to those drops to near zero. The only gripe I could have is the outer box was quite large to the extend I could consider it a tad wasteful.

So the steps I took to set it up are basically:

1. Installed the app on my mobile phone (just searched for tangem in the store)
2. I chose to set up the cards without a seed phrase (I felt that having a seed phrase sort of defeated the purpose of having a cold wallet in the first place)
3. It started off scanning the card (and I had to scan the card multiple times during setup)
4. Click create wallet and scan card again (this probably creates a brand new wallet with the private keys on the card)
5. Created the backup card(s) in the same way though it is at this point I believe the private keys are transferred through the phone (a weakness)
6. Scanned the cards when app asked me to
7. Tangems needed to finalise the backup process, so if you stop at the first card, you CAN'T add another backup card later
8. Created an access code (fancy name for PIN)
9. Created faceID
10. Scanned cards again to finalise

Then I went on to add tokens to my account. There are 1000s of coins that you can add, but the important ones for me were all available. I have listed these I could add below.

I also created addresses to withdraw crypto into in my app. The public (receiving) addresses of these coins reside on the phone as that is not a security risk. But when you start adding a token, you have to hold your card to the phone, possibly so it can generate a new wallet for that currency.

As of May 2024 Tangem supports 38 network and thousands of digital assets, including, importantly for me:

• Optimism (OP)
• Bitcoin (BTC)
• Etherium (ETH)
• Tether (USDT)
• Solana (SOL)
• USD Coin (USDC)
• XRP
• Dogecoin (DOGE)
• Cardano (ADA)
• Zilliqa (ZIL)
• Quant (QNT)
• Binance Coin (BNB)
• Shiba Inu (SHIB)
• Polkadot (DOT)
• Optimistic Ethereum (ETH) on the Optimism network

         *note I haven't tried all of these yet, as I only received the card today

Then adding that wallet address to my exchange accounts so I could withdraw to my Tangem wallet. A note about withdrawing, moving money in and out of cold storage like Tangem will invariably involve fees. The more times you do it the more you lose. I personally transfer to my Tangem card wallets coins that I intend to hold on to for long term (read at least five years). Also, creating cold wallets on block chain you may come across "reserves", amounts that blockchains "hold" from your coins that can't be used by you. XRP for example used to hold 1000 XRP for creating a wallet with them. Now (May 2024) they hold 10 XRP, so you will essentially lose that until you decide to close your walled when you will get some of it back. Usually these are small amounts not worth worrying about, but if the currency "goes to the moon" they may be of considerable value.

The exchanges made me jump through a few hoops to add and then transfer crypto to Tangem, but these were one time things, though I did realise they don't like withdrawals. Just like banks with your money. However I got there within one hour of setting it up, I had funds transferred to the Tangem card.

The card setup by itself was a breeze and took me under 5 minutes. The transferring of funds takes a bit longer. To set up all the wallets I want, I expect will take me a few days.

So far,

The good:

• - Nice looking card, fully black and minimalistic
• - Very beginner friendly
• - Easy to carry, easy to keep in storage, 25 year warranty
• - Affordable (<$100 for 3 cards) -- see link below for a 10% discount
• - Open source and audited (allegedly)
• - More features are being added

The bad:

• - Touts itself as requiring no battery / power but it does. You need power on the phone, to which it communicates via NFC.
• - Possibly not market validated yet (they claim no hacks in over a 1,000,000 cards but that number is too low)
• - Doesn't seem to have a desktop app
• - Possibility of losing due to choosing wrong address/network (this is common with crypto not just particular to Tangem)

So would I recommend this wallet / concept to my fellow crypto enthusiasts? On the balance, I would recommend trying these hardware wallets for sure. How do they compare with Ledger? Maybe I will do an article on that in future.

If you do want to try use my promo code  V7BTWZ  (or link below) to get a 10% discount. I will get an incentive as well.

Get a 10% discount on your Tangem 2.0 card purchase

That was the first impression of the tangem 2.0 wallet. Note it is an honest representation of my experience and not influenced by the promo code I got. As always, none of the foregoing is to be taken as advice and the reader assumes all responsibility for his actions not the author.