The difference being you don’t need to ask existing Bitcoin miners for permission to begin mining Bitcoin yourself. Conversely, staking is inherently impossible without first obtaining “stake” — and how can you obtain stake without the approval of existing stakers?

You don't need permission, but you do need money to buy mining hardware. Might as well buy a stake for that money instead. Same thing, isn't it?

> Same thing, isn't it?

US dollar payments aren’t subject to the approval of stakers, and existing PoW miners have no on-chain mechanism to prevent new market entrants from competing against them for hashrate.

So, “no”.

To begin staking, you first need stake. But merely transfering a PoS coin from an exchange to your own wallet for subsequent staking is inherently impossible without the approval of existing stakers. Even this isn’t enough: existing stakers must also approve of your initial staking transactions.

Which is not how PoW mining works.