Welcome to cryptocurrency Game of Thrones edition
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve almost certainly seen or heard about Game of Thrones, the biggest blockbuster series of the last decade aired by HBO, Sky TV and many other major channels.
Game of Thrones has many striking similarities with our very own crypto industry. From the show’s character development, tactics to claim the throne, persuasion and of course lust for power is quite similar to what we’ve seen in the tug of war between the core Bitcoin team and Bitcoin cash, or the infamous dispute between Tezos founders and other C-suite executives.
Game of Thrones has been one of the most popular TV series of all time with many accolades and awards under its belt. Much like cryptocurrencies, the last decade has seen the show rise from low-key beginnings into an enigma that the whole world is head over heels for. We’ve decided to create our own similarities between some of our favourite well-known Cryptocurrencies and match them up to some of the famous characters from the show.
Let’s find out which of your favourite characters resemble which digital asset.
The Plot
The First Men
Just like the first men, bitcoin was born out of mysterious circumstances but played an important role in keeping the White walkers out. The White Walkers- which we refer to as middlemen and the traditional banking system- were pushed and restrained behind a large wall of ‘pure ice’ which in the case of the bitcoin is the ‘blockchain’. It took time for the realm (Enthusiasts) to realize the power of decentralization and bend their knee to this revolutionary technology but they surely did.
The Iron Throne
Soon after newer coins began surfacing in the crypto industry, the fight for the imminent victor ensued. Bitcoin holds the iron throne without much hassle with over 60% of market dominance and the people of the veil (crypto enthusiasts) affirming its position as the one true king of the seven kingdoms. It was born before any coin existing today and it is considered as the rightful successor to the throne, but unfortunately, no one is perfect. Bitcoin has its limitations in performance and TPs and is contested time and again by other worthy opponents such as BCH, Ethereum and others. Since bitcoin has amassed a considerable market cap and influence just like Robert Baratheon, it was impossible to usurp him until he got injured on a boar hunt which could also happen to the bitcoin potentially because nothing is invincible enough.
You stay on the throne as the most formidable or you will be usurped by another worthy and stronger opponent. But with bitcoin, it is unlikely that it will ever drop in ranks any time soon and will continue creating a source of wealth for newcomers until it gets too expensive to possess.
FOMO
Fear, uncertainty and doubt, something the entire GOT plot has been riddled with. Nobody knows who might die next until an axe, arrow, or sword comes along and ends the life of one of our cast. You could be the King celebrating at your lavish feast with your newly-wed queen and all of a sudden you drop dead gasping for air desperately. ICOs can be a perfect example of this unnatural death much like Joffrey's. ICOs were young, bright, smart, overconfident and stupid to think they had a golden kingdom to rule but ended up in the dead coins list. The SEC was largely responsible for taming ICOs and even poisoning (application of stringent laws) some of them to return their funds raised to their initial investors.
The Red wedding
Perhaps the most painful moment in the entire series when the stark family were are all slaughtered in cold blood. Flying arrows, daggers and swords wreaked havoc upon the innocent starks who were betrayed by their bannermen, the Freys who struck a deal with Lord Tywin to get rid of the starks for him. The Red Wedding can be attributed to China blocking the operations of crypto exchanges. China’s National Fintech Risk Rectification Office identified 124 offshore crypto exchanges and banned their IP addresses to prevent them from functioning at all.
This was one of the many tougher crackdown efforts by the Chinese government to protect its people from potential financial threats linked to crypto investment and P2P lending. The crypto asset market was heavily flourishing in China with over 80% of crypto trading, investments and other related activities were proliferating. Much like Starks who were 20,000 strong, significantly outmaneuvered Tywin’s army and posed a threat to his governance and influence over the Seven Kingdoms. They couldn’t see the crackdown coming and succumbed to an evil plot. Much of the exchanges are thriving in China but the crackdown has had a lasting impact on ICOs and other tokenized offerings.
Battle of the bastards
The battle of the bastards was by far the most phenomenal battle scene ever shot in the history of cinema. The Boltons outnumbered the starks and were wreaking havoc on them by their smart tactics. Starks, on the other hand, had a few hundred men which consisted of the brothers of the night’s watch and the free folk whom Jon let inside the safety of the wall. This battle is highly synonymous to the forks of the bitcoin all of which deem themselves the rightful owner of the crypto territory but bitcoin (Jon Snow) manages to beat them and avoid death due to the intervention of the lords of the veil, the crypto enthusiasts, who not only crushed Ramsey’s (different forks) army but also supported Jon snow with all their might.
No matter how many forks or updates bitcoin may get, it will still remain the undisputed champion of the crypto territory until of course, it gets too difficult to mine it or it succumbs to a 51% attack or its one unit gets too expensive to buy for the regular people.
Trial by combat
The best trial by combat can be attributed to ICOs who were in a tough fight with the SEC who was just lassoing and taming these startups. In order to prove their credibility and worth, they had to run a diagnostic of the entire project and submit it to the SEC. Everything had to be transparent and legitimized in order for these ICOs to enter the market and start a crowdsale. Failure to do so, they were judged and sentenced to defunction. Many ICOs died at the hands of the SEC who failed to declare their offered currencies as securities or were trying to lure investors into thinking that their coins would skyrocket after the crowdsale.
The elegance and the luxury of the crypto industry are at par with the most-watched TV program Game of thrones. If you’ve watched Game of Thrones, tell us what did we miss and what characters we should’ve put here in this article and we will add them too.
In the next article, we will compare a few crypto assets with some of your favourite GOT characters. Hold tight.
