How I Fell Into Finance: From EU4 to DeFi

I never planned to work in finance. I'm not the guy who dreamed of Wall Street or memorized stock tickers as a kid. I was the guy who spent hours conquering Europe in EU4, optimizing railway networks in Transport Fever, and building football dynasties in Football Manager.

The Common Thread I Never Saw

For years, I thought these were just hobbies — ways to unwind after research work. But I never connected the dots.

What do EU4, Transport Fever, and Football Manager have in common?

They're all about seeing how complex systems move, and finding ways to optimize them.

In EU4, you're managing economies, alliances, trade routes, and military campaigns across centuries. In Transport Fever, you're building logistics networks where one bottleneck can cascade into system-wide failure. In Football Manager, you're balancing squad dynamics, transfer markets, wage structures, and tactical decisions.

I didn't realize it at the time, but I was training myself to think in systems. To see connections. To ask: if this happens, what else will be affected?

March 2020: The Day Oil Went Negative

Then COVID happened.

I was watching the markets like everyone else — confused, fascinated, terrified. And then something happened that I never thought possible:

Oil prices went negative.

WTI crude dropped to -$37 per barrel. Producers were literally paying people to take oil off their hands because there was nowhere to store it.

My reaction wasn't panic. It was curiosity. How is this possible? What does this mean? What happens next?

I spent hours researching — futures contracts, contango, storage economics, supply chain dynamics. It was like a puzzle, and I couldn't stop.

From Curiosity to Action

A week later, I opened an eToro account.

I had no idea what I was doing. I made mistakes. I learned about leverage the hard way. But I kept at it, because for the first time, I was applying the same systems thinking from my games to real markets.

Then I discovered crypto.

The 24/7 markets. The transparency of on-chain data. The wild volatility that rewarded those who did their homework. It was EU4 meets Transport Fever meets Football Manager — but with real stakes.

Then DeFi.

Liquidity pools. Yield farming. AMMs. Suddenly I wasn't just trading — I was understanding how financial infrastructure itself works. How incentives shape behavior. How systems can be designed to be permissionless and trustless.

The PhD Connection

Here's the funny part: my PhD was in network security and Bayesian networks. I spent years studying how to model uncertainty, how to trace causal relationships, how to ask "if A happens, what's the probability of B?"

Finance is the same thing.

If the Fed raises rates, what happens to risk assets?
If Ethereum gas fees spike, where does liquidity flow?
If a protocol gets exploited, which other protocols are exposed?

The tools are different, but the thinking is identical. Causal links. Conditional probabilities. Systems analysis.

My PhD trained me for DeFi. I just didn't know it yet.

Becoming the Accidental Advisor

Over time, something shifted. Friends started asking me about markets. Colleagues wanted to understand crypto. Family members asked where to put their savings.

I became the person people called when they wanted to understand finance — not because I had credentials, but because I had discipline. I could explain why things were happening, not just what was happening.

The analytics mindset from research. The systems thinking from games. The curiosity from that day oil went negative.

It all came together.

Now: DeFi Researcher

Today, I'm a DeFi researcher at Kyber Network. I analyze protocols, model risks, and help build systems that millions of people use.

And honestly? I love it.

I love watching my NAV grow sustainably and consistently — not from gambling, but from understanding. I love the intellectual challenge of a market that never sleeps. I love that my weird combination of interests — history, games, networks, probability — all turned out to be exactly what this field needs.

The Lesson

Looking back, I didn't fall into finance randomly. I was always heading here.

Every hour spent in EU4 was teaching me about economic systems. Every Transport Fever network was training me to spot bottlenecks. Every Football Manager season was showing me how to manage risk and opportunity.

Sometimes the path only makes sense in reverse.

If you're wondering whether your "random" interests will ever connect — give it time. They might be pointing somewhere you can't see yet.

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What unexpected interests ended up shaping your career? I'd love to hear.