S12 E4: Rahim Taghizadegan on Austrian Economics & Bitcoin as a Cult

There are plenty of bitcoiners who call themselves Austrian economists. But very few of them have the credentials of Rahim Taghizadegan. Rahim is a professor of economics who teaches in Vienna, Austria. He created Scholarium, an academic project which enables him to preserve the legacy of Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard. Furthermore, he is acquainted with many of the renown contemporary Austrian economists.

I first met Rahim Taghizadegan in July 2022, when we were both presenting at Mallorca Blockchain Days. What intrigued me is that he chose to dissect the intricacies of Bitcoin’s cult-like community. He approached the topic praxeologically, by acknowledging the nature of human action and without making assumptions of unnecessary generalizations. And since this is a topic which keeps me awake at night, I knew I should get him on the Bitcoin Takeover podcast.

In this episode, Rahim Taghizadegan also expresses views on contemporary issues such as the meaning of Bitcoin maximalism, the pros and cons of protocol ossification, and the gradual embracement of Bitcoin among academic libertarians. In the first part of this episode, you’re also going to hear Rahim’s opinion on Saifedean Ammous’ “The Bitcoin Standard Book”. Towards the end of the episode, he will make some book recommendations.

If you liked my previous episodes with Eric Voskuil (who explained the axiomatic nature of Misean economics), Max Hillebrand (who presented an introduction to praxeology) and Joshua Scigala (who introduced some anarcho-capitalist concepts), then you will absolutely love this one. It’s also one of the longest ever published, so take your time with it and digest the new information carefully.

To learn more about Rahim Taghizadegan’s Scholarium project, check out this link.

Listen to Rahim Taghizadegan on Apple Podcasts & Spotify!

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Time stamps:

01:50 – Austrian economics 101

03:49 – Are social sciences really sciences?

04:55 – Austrians vs cypherpunks

09:00 – Ossification is not a fair term while layers exist

11:05 – Privacy, fungibility and why they matter

19:00 – We’ve always been in a privacy war

21:50 – Bitcoin vs US government

24:55 – Are we still replacing the US dollar?

27:51 – The 3 meanings of digital gold

38:42 – Is fiat money inevitable?

41:50 – Does bitcoin challenge the US dollar?

45:00 – Bitcoin is already a contender for the international settlement layer

45:53 – Will Bitcoin flip gold?

53:00 – CBDCs are not an alternative to Bitcoin

01:00:30 – Compliance and high-trust societies

01:07:00 – Book recommendations?

01:13:10 – Is Bitcoin a cult?

01:18:50 – The enemies of Bitcoin label the movement as a cult

01:22:30 – The 3  meanings of Bitcoin maximalism

01:45:00 – Shitcoins as gateway drugs

01:47:00 – Vlad’s rant

01:56:00 – Scammers and their scams

02:05:05 – Astrology is more accurate than technical analysis?

02:07:00 – Cults and verification

02:24:30 – Rahim’s Scholarium

02:36:15 – Where can you follow Rahim?

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