The Bitcoin Standard Author Appointed El Salvador’s Economic Advisor

• It was reported last week that President Bukele had a meeting with Ammous.
• During his time in El Salvador, Ammous reportedly gave talks to students in the Cubo+.

President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador has hired Saifedean Ammous, who wrote The Bitcoin Standard, as an economic advisor for the country’s newly established National Bitcoin Office. According to a Bitcoin office statement, the author’s responsibilities include advising on matters concerning various economic policies and advocating for Bukele’s policy of “economic liberty and bitcoin.”

It was reported last week that President Bukele had a meeting with Ammous. They discussed “economics, hydroponics, cattle breeding, urban planning,” among other things. During his time in El Salvador, Ammous reportedly gave talks to students in the Cubo+. It is a Bitcoin and Lightning development program.

Austrian Economic Model

The Austrian school of economics argues that governments should stay out of the economy as much as possible. And instead let market forces establish prices.

When compared with the “Keynesian” school of economics, which is widely taught in today’s universities. This view opposes the use of government stimulus programs like stimulus spending and tax cuts.

Saifedean argues that an Austrian economic model would be beneficial for the global economy in his book The Bitcoin Standard. Moreover, Bitcoin, with its code-enforced quantity of 21 million units, is thus the ultimate money in his view, since it stops governments from mismanaging economies and diluting people’ wealth.

El Salvador has established the Bitcoin Office to manage and coordinate all national and international Bitcoin-related projects. It has also collaborated extensively with government authorities to shape crypto-related policies in the country.

Ammous has earned the label of “Bitcoin maximalist” for his extreme optimism toward Bitcoin and his dismissal of other cryptocurrencies as either unnecessary technologies or blatant hoaxes.