Taleb is a noted douchebag, and it's been obvious that his criticisms of btc are undertaken in bad faith, but he's not wrong about this. I actually like the point, because it requires the reader to figure out what's special about scarcity, or rather: when scarcity is special, under what circumstances do people value things that are scarce?

Clearly, being scarce, and nothing more than that, is not the answer to anything. Getting to the bottom of the issue is actually quite nuanced, and philosophically, psychologically, and sociologically interesting.