Recently, while I was re-watching Game of Thrones, I realized that the Iron Bank of Braavos is actually a lot like decentralized finance, and the show’s politics roughly mirrors the ongoing market situation.
What is the Iron Bank?
"One stone crumbles and another takes its place and the temple holds its form for a thousand years or more. And that's what the Iron Bank is, a temple. We all live in its shadow and almost none of us know it. You can't run from them, you can't cheat them, you can't sway them with excuses. If you owe them money and you don't want to crumble yourself, you pay it back."
That’s how Tywin Lannister ominously describes the Iron Bank. If we draw simple parallels, Bitcoin, or the origins of DeFi, sound a lot like the Iron Bank in the sense that no one knows who is behind Bitcoin's inception. We only know the number that is in circulation and that it is constantly changing hands. It is a system we can’t run from since all activity is tracked on a digital ledger. And it can certainly crumble you if you make the wrong decisions.
Let’s dive into the politics. Tywin Lannister has unarguably been one of the most powerful characters in the show. The Iron Throne in fact owes him a staggering debt of 6 million Gold Dragons. I guess we could say that Sam Bankman-Fried is the Tywin Lannister of crypto since he is known for throwing lifelines to sinking companies and actively funding political campaigns.
After losing the Battle of Blackwater Bay, Stannis Baratheon turned to the Iron Bank for gold in order to continue his quest for the Iron Throne. The Bank is skeptical of Stannis' proposal but agrees to make a provisional loan to Stannis due to unrest in the House of Lannister. Stannis is like Do Kwon, the infamous CEO of Terraform Labs. The Terra community gave Do Kwon a second chance to redeem himself after the LUNA crash, and just as Stannis eventually lost the war, Terra 2.0 also failed to fulfill its promises.
Cersei Lannister has had powerful allies since the beginning of the series. Even so, it wasn't enough to keep her immune from the Game of Thrones. Crypto lending platform, Vauld, would be Cersei Lannister in this scenario. Vauld raised $27 million from renowned investors such as Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and Peter Thiel-backed Valar Ventures, but claimed that the market collapse forced customers to withdraw approximately $198 million since June.
There are definitely fallacies in these analogies but I thoroughly enjoyed writing this post! Can you think of any other characters in the show who have a connection to the crypto world? I'm still trying to figure out who the crypto equivalents of Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen are!
"When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground."
- Cersei Lannister
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