As a Bitcoin Core contributor[1] and recent Ham radio adopter, the author mistakes a key point: > This lack of a gate keeper means that there is no one to soft

As a Bitcoin Core contributor[1] and recent Ham radio adopter, the author mistakes a key point: > This lack of a gate keeper means that there is no one to soften the user experience. This is true of Ham radio[2], but it is not the case with Bitcoin. Like the internet, and unlike Ham radio, Bitcoin as a system/protocol is open to people creating centralized resources atop it and serving as gatekeepers. The fact is that today a significant amount[3] of Bitcoin is stored in centralized exchange accounts, controlled by gatekeepers by way of hosted exchange wallets. Likewise, hosted web and mobile wallets are a significant element of the ecosystem, for example, while work on refining self-sovereign/non-custodial lightning network wallets continues, hosted/custodial mobile lightning network wallets are simpler to use, because the hosted gatekeeper can obviate concerns such as opening channels and managing liquidity. Several of the top lightning network wallets[4] are custodial gatekeepers. Yes, Bitcoin enthusiasts are often hobbyist tinkerers of the sort you might see in Ham radio. At the same time the broader community is served via institutional exchanges and custodial wallets with no such effort required. Often it's the tinkerers who end up running the service providers. While this decentralized tinkering is an initial hurdle to overcome - it would certainly be easier to have a single company build out all of the initial infrastructure, rather than a host of companies - the result is much more robust against the single failure or control of any one participant. Bitcoin benefits from each service provider, but isn't dependent on any of them. Like the internet, and unlike Ham radio. [1] https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/commits?author=Empact https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/commits?author=Empact [2] Largely due to the peculiarities of antenna installation and frequency selection. [3] https://news.bitcoin.com/new-list-claims-1-9-million-bitcoin-held-by-centralized-exchanges/ https://news.bitcoin.com/new-list-claims-1-9-million-bitcoin... [4] https://blog.bitrefill.com/top-11-lightning-network-wallets-bitrefill-328b5465b1b4 https://blog.bitrefill.com/top-11-lightning-network-wallets-...