Possibility of hardware wallets being 'unsupported' in the future?

Question

I was reading online about getting a hardware wallet/vs a paper wallet, and some comments online were mentioning that "Tech changes so quickly that in 16 years the hardware wallet might be completely unsupported. Perhaps the usb connection it uses will no longer be available at all. Maybe the company that made that wallet goes under. Sound too risky to me". I found this really interesting, as I had never thought about the technical limitations. At the same time, it seems a bit crazy that those things would happen. Even if the company goes under, you still have your wallet and keys. Even if it isnt the same type of USB, getting an older computer with a USB with it is definitely possible.

I thought a hardware wallet was one of the more secure ways to store crypto, are these fears legitimate?

Answer 1

Sure, it's possible that the physical hardware spec could cease to be commonplace (we've seen it before with floppy disks, tapes, PS/2 etc.)

However, Hardware wallets follow BIP39/44/49. In the event that the wallet is lost, unsupported, destroyed, or the company dies, you can always recover your coins by using a software wallet such as Electrum, or even manually. Many open source tools exist to recover coins from seeds.

If at any point the hardware wallets are being deprecated because of actual hardware reasons, it's almost a given that newer wallets will be created, and you will be able to just import your seed from the old one to carry on transacting as normal.