> types which are always heap-allocated and sitting behind an invisible (and un-interactible) pointer > A map is just a heap-allocated structure sitting behind

> types which are always heap-allocated and sitting behind an invisible (and un-interactible) pointer > A map is just a heap-allocated structure sitting behind a pointer. And the difference is?.. Because maps in Go behave exactly as if they were un-referenceable pointers to the hidden, heap-allocated hashtables.