I need to understand.

At what point does BTC become a rich man’s game and retail gets locked out again?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately and I’m genuinely confused. Wasn’t Bitcoin originally created to help the average person?

To be a peer-to-peer electronic cash system that bypasses traditional banking gatekeepers?

But here’s what I’m seeing: • Transaction fees that can spike to $20+ during busy periods • Lightning Network requiring technical knowledge most people don’t have • Mining becoming dominated by massive industrial operations • Institutional adoption driving prices to levels where a whole coin costs more than most people’s annual salary • Self-custody requiring technical skills that intimidate regular users

I keep hearing that Bitcoin is “the best monetary system known to man” - and maybe it is from a technical standpoint. But if that’s true, why does it feel like we’re heading toward a system where only wealthy institutions and tech-savvy individuals can actually use it effectively?

The man on the street who Bitcoin was supposedly created for now needs:

• Expensive hardware wallets • Deep technical knowledge of seed phrases, private keys, etc. • Ability to navigate complex DeFi protocols • Enough capital to make transaction fees worthwhile 

Meanwhile, the same financial institutions that Bitcoin was meant to disrupt are now buying it up by the billions and potentially manipulating the market just like they do with everything else. Am I missing something here?

Is there actually a realistic path for regular people to use Bitcoin as intended, or are we just recreating the same exclusionary financial system with extra steps?

Would love to hear from people who’ve been in this space longer than me. Are there solutions I’m not seeing, or is this just the inevitable evolution of any successful monetary system?

TL;DR: Bitcoin feels like it’s becoming exactly what it was created to replace - a financial system that only works for the elite. Change my mind?