Install the Kadena app
Connect a Ledger Nano S Plus and install Kadena 1.3.0. Nothing to download. Please read this page before you start — it takes two minutes and it explains the one check that protects you.
This browser cannot connect to USB devices
Use Chrome, Edge or Brave on a desktop computer. Firefox and Safari do not support the connection this needs. If you would rather not use a browser, there is a command-line installer for Linux in the installer repository ↗.
Get your device ready
- Plug the Ledger in directly — not through a hub, dock or monitor.
- Unlock it with your PIN and leave it on the home screen, not inside an app.
- Close Ledger Live completely. While it is open it holds the connection and nothing else can reach your device.
You will never be asked for your 24-word recovery phrase. Anything that asks for it is stealing from you — including anything that looks like us.
What will happen, in order
Your device will show you two different long codes. They are not the same thing, and telling them apart is the whole point of this section.
- Your browser asks which device
A small window appears listing your Ledger. Choose it and click Connect.
- Your device says “unsafe manager” and shows a long code
It may say “Allow unknown manager?” or warn about an unsafe manager. This code is not the app hash. It is a one-time key that is different every single time you install, so there is nothing to compare it against. Do not try to match it to anything on this page. Approve it and continue.
- The app is copied across
A progress bar runs for roughly half a minute. Nothing is required from you.
- Your device shows the app’s “Full hash”
Now a second long code appears, on a screen labelled Full hash. This is the one that matters. This page will be showing the value it must equal. Compare every block, then approve on the device.
If you only remember one thing: ignore the first code, check the second one.
What you should know before installing
Your device will warn you, and the warning is correct
The Kadena app is not in Ledger’s catalogue yet, so it is not signed by Ledger and your device says so. That is expected. It is also exactly why the hash check exists — nobody has vetted this app on your behalf, so you verify it yourself.
The real risk is a swapped app, not a stolen phrase
No app installed on a Ledger can read your recovery phrase — that is the point of the device, and it holds here. The genuine risk with an unreviewed app is narrower and still serious: a tampered version could show you one payment on screen while signing a different one. Comparing the Full hash is what rules that out.
Check the expected hash against a second source
If you did not reach this page from a link you already trust, compare the value it shows with the one published in the app release notes ↗ before approving. A copied version of this page would happily show you a matching number for a tampered app. Your device protects you from a compromised computer; it cannot protect you from taking the expected value from an attacker.
Nothing here can damage your device or your funds
Installing and removing apps never touches your recovery phrase, your PIN or the device firmware. Your KDA lives on the blockchain, not on the Ledger. If an install fails part way, the app slot is simply left empty — run it again.
It is completely reversible
Remove the app at any time in Ledger Live under “My Ledger”. Reinstalling later restores access with the same recovery phrase.
This only works on a Nano S Plus, in a Chromium browser
Nano X, Stax, Flex and Gen 5 cannot have apps installed outside Ledger Live — here is why. Chrome, Edge and Brave can connect to USB devices; Firefox and Safari cannot.
We are not Ledger, and this is not endorsed by them
This is a community continuation of Zondax’s ↗ original app, maintained by Smart Pacts and open source ↗. Getting it back into Ledger Live is the real fix and it is in progress; this exists in the meantime.
Did the “Full hash” on your device match, exactly?
Open source: kadena-ledger-installer ↗. The code your browser runs is published with its checksum at /ledger/SHA256SUMS.txt.