What is cryptocurrency?
- Cryptoassets or Cryptocurrency is a digital currency that can be used to pay for things, instead of using real currency like Great British Pounds or any other currency around the world.
- Including failed cryptocurrencies, there are around 5,000 to 7,000 cryptocurrencies in existence. The largest cryptocurrency is Bitcoin or BTC, with a market cap of around $856 billion dollars, which is about £634 billion pounds.
- This is then followed by Ethereum or ETH, at a market cap of $357 billion dollars, which is about £264 billion pounds. The third largest cryptocurrency is Binance Coin or BNB, at a market cap of $70 billion dollars, which is £52 billion pounds.
- The fourth largest is called Cardano or ADA, with a market cap of $69 billion dollars, which is £51 billion pounds. The fifth largest is called Tether or UDST, with a market cap of $64 billion dollars, which is £47 billion dollars.
- Investing in cryptocurrencies and Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) is very risky and highly speculative. If you bought £50 worth of Bitcoin in the year of 2011, it would now, in 2021, be worth more than a shocking amount of a million pounds.
- All cryptocurrencies have one thing in common, they all work separately without the need of a central banking system, when you buy something using cryptocurrency the bank doesn’t handle or check the payment and the bank doesn't even know about the payment.
- One of the best private untraceable currencies is in fact not Bitcoin, but Bytecoin or BCN. The untraceable aspect from BCN is accomplished by ring signatures. Ring signatures are simply string transactions together in a way that makes it hard, but not impossible, to tell them apart from each other. These ring signatures make its transactions opaque, meaning observers can not see who sent the transaction, how much the transaction was and who received it.
- Another cryptocurrency that is one of most secure and most popular is Monero or XMR, this cryptocurrency has been on the rise primarily because it has an ability to help anonymize users, much like Bytecoin, XMR uses ring signatures, but it also uses stealth addresses. Stealth addresses operate by having the sender use a one-time address for every transaction, even if multiple transactions are done with the same recipient. There is however one downside of XMR, if the identity of the wallet owner that is making the transactions becomes known then their transactions can be traced.
China announces complete ban on cryptocurrencies | Science & Tech News
- The People’s Bank of China or PBoC announced the illegality of all cryptocurrency-related financial activities, a translated announcement, about this issue, from the central bank of China said that cryptocurrencies have been “disrupting economic and financial order, breeding illegal and criminal activities such as gambling, illegal fundraising, fraud, pyramid schemes and money laundering and seriously endangering the safety of people’s property”.
- Cryptocurrency mining followed another ban announced in May of this year, 2021, in China on financial institutions and payment companies providing serviced related to cryptocurrencies, causing the value of Bitcoin to decrease by more than 20%.
El Salvador
El Salvador's President Bukele Uses Bitcoin for a Rebrand | Time
- Two years ago, an anonymous American donor sent more than $100,000 in cryptocurrency to a non-governmental organisation that Roman Martinez, a famous Puerto-Rican boxer, works for in El Zonte, a town in El Salvador, to pay for social programs. As the team of workers that works at the NGO began encouraging families and businesses to use Bitcoin, many of the town’s residents, most of whom had never had a bank account before, began saving their money in the currency, making gains as its value surged. Curious tourists flooded into the town and foreign businesses set up shops. The project gave the town El Zonte the nickname “Bitcoin beach”, simultaneously a charitable endeavour and one of the world’s largest experiments in cryptocurrency.
Cryptocurrency Ownership Data for Brazil 2021
In Brazil, Bitcoin Acceptance Comes With Rules (additional info on this)
- It is estimated that over 10 million people, which is over 4.9% of Brazil’s total population, currently own cryptocurrency. 92% of Brazilian crypto users are male and regardless of gender, 40% of crypto holders are 20 to 25 years old. The other age groups 26-30 and 31-40 respectively represent 20%.
- Brazil is the fifth country in the world in terms of number of cryptocurrency owners. Brazil leads South America in terms of cryptocurrency-active owners, ahead of Colombia (7.7%), Mexico (5.9%) and Argentina (4%).
What is legal tender?
- A shop owner can choose what payment they accept. If you want to pay for a pack of gum with a £50 note, the shop owner is legally allowed to turn you down. Likewise for all other banknotes, it is a matter of discretion, meaning it's up to the shop owner if they want to accept or deny your payment.
Global Cryptocurrency Ownership Data 2021
- As of this year, 2021, the company Triple A, have estimated global cryptocurrency ownership rates at an average of 3.9%, with over 300 million cryptocurrency users worldwide. And over 18,000 businesses worldwide are already accepting cryptocurrency payments.
Racism in Football Research
Racism at the euros
Racism in football: What do young people think after Euro 2020? - CBBC Newsround
Marcus Rashford
Marcus Rashford on racial abuse he received after EURO 2020 final
- Euros racism in the finals three black English players , Jayden Sancho, Marcus Rashford, Bakoyo Saka missed penalties in the first final England has participated in since 1996. Due to this those players received racial abuse online even going so far as death threats and murals to the players were vandalised. One of said players was only 18 years old at the time of the finals taking place.
- “The UK Football Policing Unit say its investigation team has received more than 600 reports from individuals, charities, clubs and other organisations across the country, and 207 were criminal in nature, with 34 accounts identified as being in the UK.”
Toxic Masculinity in Football Fan Communities
- There is lots to love about football especially when international tournaments like the Euros come around. A community coming together to root for the same cause is enlivening and intoxicating, especially after the social isolation and stress of lockdown. But there’s also a dark side to the sport with some fans. Domestic violence – which is statistically more likely to be perpetrated by men against women – went up by 28% when the national team played during the 2018 World Cup. If England lost, that figure went up to 38%.
- Jolyon Rubinstein said he endured racial abuse as he entered Wembley Stadium for the final, and a mural in honour of Marcus Rashford was vandalised less than an hour after England lost to Italy. It’s important to stipulate that football is not the root cause of racism, violence, or domestic abuse – these are issues that would exist with or without the beautiful game.
- But what is it about something like football that allows it to hold such sway over the kind of people prone to that sort of vile behaviour?. Psychotherapist Noel McDermott tells Metro.co.uk that part of it is down to the sheer amount of alcohol flowing when a big game is on, saying: ‘There is a direct correlation between alcohol consumption and violence.’
- He adds there’s a certain amount of mob mentality at play, comparing the way humans are programmed to go with the flow of a crowd to the movement of a flock of birds and herds of wildebeest. ‘There is a strong pull in being in a large group to conform to its norms,’ he explains.
- ‘If the mob is happy, it is fine. If it is unhappy, then even if a particular individual is fine, they will be overcome by the mood of the mob. ‘There are a variety of processes that take place in large groups that don’t happen in smaller ones – for example, a thing called the bystander effect. A group will watch and not help in a situation where they might normally object, say while watching some bullying or violent attack.
Homophobia in Fan Communities
FA Tackling Homophobia
LGBTQ players
End game: Justin Fashanu's final score
FA Tackling Homophobia
- As a sport and industry, football continues to embrace the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGB&T) community and there is still more to do to stop these forms of discriminatory abuse.
- Groups and individuals tackling homophobia, biphobia and transphobia in the game engage regularly and established lobby groups like Stonewall, coupled with the emergence of a vibrant fans movement consisting of LGB&T groups linked to professional clubs, means there is more visibility around this area than ever before.
- Campaigns designed to raise awareness of this issue have caught the public’s imagination in recent years. Football v Homophobia began in the UK before developing into an international initiative opposing homophobia at all levels from grassroots to professional clubs. Latterly, the Rainbow Laces campaign focused on promoting acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGB&T) footballers, with professional and non-league clubs donning rainbow coloured laces.
- Martin Glenn, chief executive officer at The FA, has made his views on the importance of embracing this issue clear: “This is a time to acknowledge some of the good work taking place in this field by policy makers and campaigners alike. As both leader of The FA, and just as importantly as a fan, I’m proud to see the range of work being done to embrace people from right across the LGB&T community.”
LGBTQ players
End game: Justin Fashanu's final score
- Justin Fashanu (Played for many football teams like Norwich City, Miramar Rangers, Lincoln City, Crystal Palace, Millwall and Aston Villa, was gay (homosexual) born in February 1961 but took his own life on the 2nd of May 1998, on Friday 8th of May of 1998, nearly a week since his death, 6 days, a British newspaper was leaked an excerpt from his suicide note and ran a story sympathetically, headlined “Boy lover blackmailed me”. A month later, a Channel 5 documentary lauded his soccer career. And on Tuesday June 23 – three months after that fateful night in the Ashton Woods apartment – gay activists held a “memorial tribute” in London, dubbing him “a victim of racism and homophobia”.)
- Casey Stoney (Centre-back at Arsenal Ladies, Former clubs: Charlton, identifies as a lesbian, she says that “In the past, I made up lies about having a boyfriend or acted a certain way because I felt like that's how I had to act and be accepted by the modern world," Stoney admitted. "But I wasn't happy doing that, because I was always lying, and lying to myself as well." Although Stoney's sexuality is known in women's football, and to her friends and family, she is the best-known lesbian footballer to speak publicly about her personal life in this manner. She said she wanted to help others who might also feel trapped by their identity.
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