Ep. 97: Allen Farrington - Architecting the Monetary Endgame

My guest today is Allen Farrington, writer, investor, and co-founder of Axiom, a Bitcoin-focused venture capital firm backing companies that use Bitcoin as real infrastructure rather than speculation. Allen co-authored “Bitcoin is Venice” and “Only the Strong Survive” and draws on a background in math, philosophy, Austrian economics, and long-term equity investing to explain why Bitcoin is both a technological breakthrough and a venture opportunity hiding in plain sight. In this episode, he shares why he believes the most valuable startups will use Bitcoin as invisible plumbing for payments, energy, and financial services rather than marketing themselves as “Bitcoin companies.” We explore why current stablecoin systems break under real demand, how Lightning and Taproot Assets enable issuer competition and scalable payments, and why the long arc ends with e-cash and Bitcoin-native money. Allen frames Axiom’s edge as “temporal arbitrage”: investing early where technical understanding and adoption are low, anticipating that in a decade the market will recognize the value created by Bitcoin-based infrastructure.

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-- LINKS –

Allen’s X: https://x.com/allenf32Axiom Website: https://www.axiombtc.capital/about 

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-- CHAPTERS –

00:00 - Coming Up

01:12 - Introduction to Allen

03:20 - Discovering Bitcoin & Career Trajectory 

12:03 - Ad Break - Trezor & BitVault

15:22 - Investment Philosophy & Lightning as Inspiration

17:52 - Company and Investment Selection for Axiom VC

30:12 - Stablecoins & Regulations

37:32 - Why Most Stablecoin Systems Fail At Scale?

44:50 - The Importance of Stablecoin Issuers

51:16 - Stablecoins on Lightning & Taproot Assets: A New Approach

1:01:23 - The Future of Digital Money: E-Cash

1:05:47 - Steps to Migrate From Fiat To Bitcoin

1:10:28 - Companies to Watch in the Bitcoin & Lightning Space

1:16:43 - Allen Loves What He Does & Why He Does It