UATX, The University of Austin, Texas, is rediscovering and redefining academic pursuit. Founded in 2021, the start-up university stands as a protest to the intellectual dogma and the “woke” radicalization of major universities in recent years, focusing instead on entrepreneurship and preparing students for a technologically and culturally complex future.
These old values, rekindled by the chaos of modernity, have led UATX to Bitcoin: “The first principles of this institution share the same space, language, and ethos as the first principles behind Bitcoin: freedom of speech, freedom to transact, individual and institutional sovereignty, distributed decentralized governing structure,” Anthony J. Rosario, major gifts and bitcoin endowment officer at UATX, told Bitcoin Magazine.
UATX has been making waves in recent weeks and months with a variety of Bitcoin-related announcements, among them the publication of “The Satoshi Papers,” a book comprising a collection of political, social, and economic essays debating the impact and nature of Bitcoin, echoing the Federalist Papers (popularized during the founding of the United States). They also announced a bitcoin endowment fund, one of the first in the country, and they boast a Bitcoin and cryptocurrency curriculum led by Dr. Thomas L. Hogan, which gives students hands-on experience with the technology and industry. So much so that Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, recently tweeted he’ll be “recruiting new college grads from UATX,” adding that, “It aligns well with our apolitical culture. Let’s hope we see more apolitical universities emerge over time.”
A Protest Against Cancel Culture and Intellectual Rigidity in Academia
“A lot of our faculty and staff came to UATX because they were tired of the intellectual rigidity and cancel culture at their previous institutions,” Maggie Kelly, chief advancement officer at UATX told Bitcoin Magazine. She added that, “We’re really trying to create a place where people can come and think freely and explore ideas without fear of being canceled or silenced, which is a huge problem in academia today.”
UATX was founded by journalist Bari Weiss, historian Niall Ferguson, venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale, at the time the president of St. John’s College, and Pano Kanelos, who had criticized the “illiberal” nature of traditional universities in modern times.
Kanelos, founding president and now chancellor of the University, put it best in a Free Press article in 2021, “Nearly a quarter of American academics in the social sciences or humanities endorse ousting a colleague for having a wrong opinion about hot-button issues such as immigration or gender differences.”
Citing a report by the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology. Kalenos pointed out that “over a third of conservative academics and PhD students said they had been threatened with disciplinary action for their views and four out of five American PhD students are willing to discriminate against right-leaning scholars.”
Daring to think differently and forced to take on a start-up mindset, despite being a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the UATX has a strong focus on entrepreneurship, history, economics, and classical Western philosophical thought — powerful and fundamental ideas that inevitably led them to Bitcoin.
The UATX Bitcoin Curriculum
The Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency curriculum at the University of Austin is led by Associate Professor of Economics Dr. Hogan, who has deep experience in economics and academia. He was formerly the chief economist for the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and has worked at the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER), the Cato Institute, the World Bank, and Merrill Lynch’s commodity trading group, among others.
“Our introductory course is a combination of knowledge acquisition and practical skills. Students study the origins of Bitcoin, the mechanics of the network, and how Bitcoin helps protect human rights. At the same time, they get to install a wallet, make trades on Bitcoin and Lightning, and spin up their own Bitcoin miner,” Dr. Hogan told Bitcoin Magazine.
Unlike other online resources and educational materials, UATX leans into its close connections with the Bitcoin industry in Texas, unlocking a personal and hands-on experience with the technology. Jack Platts from Hypersphere Ventures donated bitcoin to the students, while Cholla Inc, Gideon Powell, and Brad Cuddy donated Antminer S9 miners that students set up in their dorms (which they used to join a mining pool). Pierre Rochard has given guest lectures, guiding students through Lightning Network transactions. The class even had a field trip to Riot’s mining facility in Rockdale, Texas, where an old aluminum smelting facility has been turned by Riot into a Bitcoin mine. Students received books like “Gradually, Then Suddenly,” “The Satoshi Papers,” “Resistance Money,” and “The Genesis Block.”
While the Bitcoin curriculum has not been advertised much, Rosario revealed that the course “was the second most popular course that students bid on using our free market bidding system where they use points to select their courses. The only course that beat it out was a special elective by Niall Ferguson.”
“Beyond Bitcoin, the students learn about the unique aspects of other tokens and blockchains. They program and deploy basic smart contracts and explore how these tools can be used to build systems for Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and Decentralized Physical Infrastructure (DePIN),” added Dr. Hogan, who believes the public and verifiable nature of cryptographic finance has the potential to phase out fraud and corruption found in legacy finance.
When asked about the novel risks of crypto scams and Ponzi schemes, meme coins, rug pulls, and so on — especially how the university deals with those topics from an educational perspective — Rosario addressed the concern by saying that, “The best way we teach students about fraud, not just in digital assets but in their careers and lives, is by providing an intellectual foundation at the core of our curriculum that builds their mind and character. Our students are highly agentic, here to build an institution, not just attend a university. Our tagline is the fearless pursuit of truth, teaching the intellectual foundations of the Western tradition, from ancient Greeks to modern philosophers and economists. When teaching half on Bitcoin and half on cryptocurrency, UATX is ecumenical. To build the life of the mind, students must be introduced to different ideas.”
Dr. Hogan emphasized the transparency and reliability of blockchains as compared to traditional financial networks. “Unlike an opaque financial company, the funds in a smart contract can easily be verified on the blockchain. Unlike a bank transfer or stock trade that might take days to clear, transactions on the blockchain can be verified within minutes,” he explained, adding that, “In contrast, failed companies like FTX and the Celsius Network were not decentralized companies built on blockchain technology. They were traditional financial companies that failed for the same old reasons: excessive risk and outright fraud. Moving to blockchain-based systems will help prevent such collapses in the future.”
Dr. Hogan shared the original schedule of classes and guest lecturers with Bitcoin Magazine, as seen below:
Part 1: Bitcoin
Week 1: Intro to Bitcoin and blockchains
Week 2: The Bitcoin and Lightning networks (Pierre Rochard)
Week 3: Bitcoin and human rights (Craig Warmke)
Week 4: Bitcoin mining and energy economics
Week 5: The future of Bitcoin (Will Cole and Parker Lewis)
Part 2: Cryptocurrency and blockchain technology
Week 6: Cryptocurrency and smart contracts
Week 7: Decentralized finance (DeFi)
Week 8: Webpage and blockchain interactions (Phil Greenwald)
Week 9: Utility tokens and decentralized physical infrastructure (Kyle Samani)
Week 10: The future of crypto and blockchains
Bitcoin in Academic Discourse: The Satoshi Papers
Beyond teaching Bitcoin to their students, UATX has led a conversation about the societal meaning and impact of Bitcoin in academic circles. In February of 2025, the university hosted the Satoshi Papers Symposium, a day of academic lectures celebrating the launch of the book by the Texas Bitcoin Foundation (TBF).
The Satoshi Papers, published by the Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI) and edited by TBF executive director and BPI fellow Natalie Smolenski, “draws inspiration from the 18th-century American debate between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists about the role of government in preserving the liberties of individuals and communities.”
The book features a series of essays from a variety of scholars including economists, historians, anthropologists, and other social scientists, discussing the relationship between money and state in a post-Bitcoin world.
A Bitcoin Endowment In Self Custody
In addition from their educational and academic contributions to Bitcoin, UATX also hold the asset in a custom-designed Bitcoin Endowment, and unlike many other universities who also carry bitcoin exposure via ETFs, the university has a strong belief in self custody, securing the funds in multisignature wallets in collaboration with Unchained Capital, an instrumental partner in the university’s foray into Bitcoin.
Joe Kelly, CEO and co-founder of Unchained, donated 2 bitcoin to the Endowment to kick-start it; the university is actively raising a $5-million fund in bitcoin, which they have committed to holding in cold storage for at least five years.
During the announcement made in June 2024, Kelly said, “Both UATX and the Bitcoin community are building innovative institutions for the future. By choosing Unchained as a partner, the university is signaling its assessment of bitcoin’s function as a freedom-preserving technology, with our custody model helping to ensure there is no single point of failure to UATX’s long-term bitcoin holdings.”
