I've run a meetup for 10 years. Here's my perspective on where the semi-technical bitcoiner is at these days.

The Medium Bitcoiner has a fiat job and a hardware wallet. He's stacking as much as possible. He believes in the sound money thesis. He has a family and needs a simple bitcoin setup that works without heavy maintenance.

Two years ago he finally connected his hardware wallet to a node via Sparrow, Umbrel, or Start9. A cut of his salary ends up on this hardware wallet every month. He knows not to leave on exchanges.

On his phone he has a custodial lightning wallet that he uses to pay for things when he can. He funds it from his cold wallet. He believes in the eventual circular economy and wants to help make it happen. He's not going to run a lightning node.

He hates updating anything. His ideal update schedule is as follows:

• Node - when I get a new computer
• Hardware wallet - when I get a new hardware wallet
• Lightning wallet - when I get a new phone

He isn't heavy into the debates. He has a conservative approach to changes. He wants bugs fixed. He wants security and reliability improvements. He wants new features only when there's overwhelming agreement.

He's annoyed by Knots' defaulting to bricking your node after two years. He's annoyed by Core making changes without clear agreement. He's annoyed by having to switch lightning phone wallets every 6 months because they stop working.

He's still runs Core v27. He's not going to update anytime soon. Especially not until this stuff settles down.

He hasn't lost any faith in the long term success of bitcoin. He's just a little worried that Core, Knots, and Lightning software are now being made by developers for developers, and not for users like him.