The Beautiful Game. Soccer, or football, as those living in the “old world” tend to call it. It’s a sport that has many names, a sport that commands a support base of some 4 billion people. The power of football is undeniable. Its best players, the Ronaldos and the Messis, are some of the most recognizable people on the planet. Its biggest teams have millions of fans scattered across the world and broadcasters reach more than half of the people on the planet. The European football industry alone turned over 25 billion euros in revenue in 2020, according to Deloitte, an indicator of the value in the biggest theater for the sport.The popularity of football is due in large part to its simplicity as a game, and this has inevitably led to the biggest leagues and competitions attracting massive audiences and generating plenty of revenue for all involved. Whether it’s through team sponsorships or marketing on broadcasts and advertising space, the sheer size of its viewership makes football a prime way for brands and businesses of all kinds to reach a lot of consumers.While the cryptocurrency and blockchain space is still in its infancy, it’s a burgeoning industry that is quickly redefining finance and remittance, individual sovereignty of wealth, and a host of other use cases. A number of different firms and organizations have taken the world of crypto into the football arena in different ways, but they’ve quickly made moves to be associated with some of the biggest players, teams and competitions as a result.Here’s exactly how cryptocurrencies have been introduced to global football audiences and blockchain technology applied to some of the industry’s most popular applications.Tapping into a huge audienceFootball is the most-watched sport in the world, captivating the minds of billions throughout its history. This audience is made up of fans of all types, from fanatics to casual viewers and impartials. The love of the game has fostered an environment that goes far beyond what is happening on the television screens, from the physical world of merchandise and memorabilia to the digital world of predictions games, fantasy sports and betting. Both areas are prime candidates that can be improved by the different use cases blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies offer.One such company that hopes to disrupt the game is Skrill, a global payments firm that has had a long relationship with European football. As Rupinder Singh, senior vice president of consumer and digital wallets divisions at Skrill, tells Magazine, the company’s history of football sponsorship goes as far back as 2013 in the United Kingdom’s Football Conference league, while its parent company Paysafe’s other digital wallet, Neteller, became a sponsor of Premier League outfit Crystal Palace at the same time.Part of Skrill’s payments bouquet is a cryptocurrency wallet that allows users to store and manage a selection of tokens. The company’s footprint in European football has grown significantly since its humble beginnings sponsoring third-tier football eight years ago.   Who would have bet few years ago that there would tokens, digital assets on the front of jerseys? This is an investment we made to make a strong statement about digital assets globally. pic.twitter.com/WJ05PY2mIb— Alexandre Dreyfus (@alex_dreyfus) September 26, 2021  In March 2021, Skrill signed as an official partner of U.K. Premier League team Leeds United, its latest big-name sponsorship deal in recent years. It had already partnered with Italian Serie A giants A.C. Milan last year. It also has a foothold in the United States as a front-of-jersey sponsor of Los Angeles-based club LA 10 FC, which plays in the growing United Premier Soccer League. From the outside looking in, one might wonder how cryptocurrency and blockchain firms can synergize with the football industry. History provides an answer, as marketing through advertising channels in the football industry has been tried and tested by various brands for decades. Singh believes that “the football audience is one of the most digitally adept audiences in the way they consume content, interact with their clubs or each other within online communities and entertain themselves through sports gambling or fantasy sports.” According to him, the jump to cryptocurrencies is a natural extension for such a group of potential customers. Singh also thinks many more firms from the crypto space could benefit from becoming involved in the football ecosystem:“Football will likely always be of interest to crypto companies as long as they continue to see the behaviors of their customers mirror those of football fans, plus the obvious reach and impact that the sport has in every market across the world.”Crypto.com is another cryptocurrency firm that is popping up on advertising boards in arenas and stadiums across the world. A partnership with the Italian Serie A has seen Crypto.com’s branding feature on pitchside advertising. As Crypto.com chief marketing officer Steven Kalifowitz tells Cointelegraph, a decision to begin advertising in the football space was made at the end of 2020, and there’s been no delay in making this happen. French football giant Paris Saint-Germain F.C. also welcomed the company as its “Official Cryptocurrency Platform Partner” in 2021. Part of the deal would see PSG release exclusive nonfungible tokens and pay a “significant” portion of the sponsorship fee in its native Crypto.com Coin.    Borussia Dortmund, one of Germany’s premier football clubs, has also partnered with a cryptocurrency firm. Growing crypto derivatives exchange Bybit secured a sponsorship deal that was unveiled late in 2020, which was touted to help grow Dortmund’s brand in Asia. Cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX has its logo emblazoned on the left sleeve of A.C. Milan’s men’s, women’s and esports team jerseys after it signed a deal to become the Italian club’s official cryptocurrency trading partner.Bringing digital scarcity to big brandsNo other space has taken to the NFT craze like sports have. You need not look further than the NBA Top Shot ecosystem to see the perfect synergy among blockchain-based NFTs, tokens and sports fans.Memorabilia, collectibles, prized signatures, and player and team cards have been popular for decades, with fanatics taking great joy out of showcasing their prized, rare possessions. The advent of blockchain…

A key milestone has been reached by one of the most talked-about DeFi projects of the Summer, with the release of the Quarashi Network’s next-generation mobile platform. With an October 1st launch date for the ICO, the Quarashi Network’s privacy and anonymity-focused app recently went live on Google Play and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. In a short space of time, the Quarashi Multi Crypto Wallet VPN Privacy Chat App received more than 5000 downloads. From the near 2000 reviews on Google Play to date, Quarashi has scored a perfect rating, justifying early excitement about the Quarashi Network project. Having made waves and enjoyed noticeable attention in a successful pre-sale, the Quarashi network has managed to capture the zeitgeist of today. The frustration with data harvesting and the lack of true privacy, especially in social media, has been brought to the fore over the last couple of years. Whilst the coronavirus pandemic saw a huge shift towards working and living online,  2021 has seen a belated but welcome focus on security and privacy, or indeed, the lack of, with the messaging apps we all have traditionally used. Facebook, the social media giant, actually saw its number of daily active users in the US and Canada fall by two million for the third quarter of 2020, declining to 196 million from 198 million in the second quarter of the year. Meanwhile, Twitter has seen a steady decline in its active users since 2019. More and more people are turning to encrypted chat apps for their communication. However, most messaging apps only provide you with end-to-end encryption (E2E). There has been a lack of true anonymity in apps with many chat apps claiming to offer privacy but still, ask you for personal information such as an email or a telephone number to use the service. This is not the true anonymity and privacy that people want. Quarashi offers a fully decentralized, blockchain-fueled community-driven chat app built on the principles of true privacy and anonymity, very much in the spirit of the initial blockchain projects almost a decade ago. Quarashi does not request or require any personal information to use. No phone number, email address or even location is requested ensuring maximum untraceable anonymity at all times. The Quarashi app is ad-free and third party access free. There are trackers and information sharing. To ensure complete safety there is a self-destructing option that deletes the message after a certain period of time. Message history is also hidden and a  secure screen option is available which means people are unable to take screenshots; an often used method of data and privacy leaks. The icing on the cake? The Quarashi app can act as an offline wallet without even necessarily needing a sim card. However, it is the appeal of the all-in-one Quarashi ecosystem and the privacy it offers, that can help explain the rise of the Quarashi Network since its August launch. The Quarashi multi-crypto wallet currently supports around 9000 digital currencies and usability on the Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain Networks. The wallet offers a unique interface that enables users to complete anonymous transactions, even using a text address or QR codes. Just a single wallet offering maximum privacy is needed for multiple assets – all of which can be tracked with charts by the user in real-time. Private keys are stored securely in the blockchain. However, they can always be imported to any non-custodial wallets such as Metamask or Trust Wallet if needed. Privacy and anonymity are central to the core of the Quarashi Network. Within the decentralized Quarashi ecosystem, there is also an IDO launchpad and VPN. The launchpad provides multi-chain compatibility, giving early access to new cryptocurrency projects through the platform in a secure and transparent manner. The VPN adds that extra layer of security of privacy and protection. As well as acting as a barrier against malware, phishing attacks and viruses, the VPN and bowser functionality enables safe and private trading of international markets, ensuring optimal anonymity and security in whatever you do. The Quarashi Network ecosystem is powered by the native digital asset – $QUA token – a multi-functional token utilized in the Quarashi platform. It is an ethereum-based (ERC-20), deflationary, fairly issued and 100% transparent digital currency that can be used for secure and anonymous transactions with low liquidity risk. As the global crypto community continues to grow at an exponential rate – the market size for cryptocurrency will get to $1087.7 million by 2026 – the Quarashi Network offers easy access to those not yet initiated in the crypto world. By bridging the gap between crypto and everyday messaging use, with full privacy, Quarashi Network provides the all-in-one solution that not just the crypto community have been clamouring for. People’s privacy and data security matter more than ever before. As governments around the world impose draconian measures and policies designed to limit our freedoms and our privacies, and as ‘Big Tech’ gets only bigger with the profits made on the back of our data, Quarashi Network is the Next Generation of platforms that takes the power back to the user. With the latest key milestone of the App going live on Google Play reached, the team at Quarashi Network are advancing through their roadmap at an impressive pace. The Quarashi app has been a resounding success and the number of downloads increasing daily. The next big milestone is the ICO stage 1 on October 1st. The eagerly-awaited ICO comes off the back of a successful pre-sale and launch. Investor interest has been steadily increasing in the Quarashi Network project and the completion of several key milestones combined with a clear and defined white paper and roadmap means that Quarashi Network may not be a name you are familiar with just yet, but soon will be. The Next Generation of decentralized ecosystems, offering a complete all-in-one truly private solution, is here and we will be hearing a lot more of the Quarashi Network in the…

A key milestone has been reached by one of the most talked-about DeFi projects of the Summer, with the release of the Quarashi Network’s next-generation mobile platform. With an October 1st launch date for the ICO, the Quarashi Network’s privacy and anonymity-focused app recently went live on Google Play and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. In a short space of time, the Quarashi Multi Crypto Wallet VPN Privacy Chat App received more than 5000 downloads. From the near 2000 reviews on Google Play to date, Quarashi has scored a perfect rating, justifying early excitement about the Quarashi Network project. Having made waves and enjoyed noticeable attention in a successful pre-sale, the Quarashi network has managed to capture the zeitgeist of today. The frustration with data harvesting and the lack of true privacy, especially in social media, has been brought to the fore over the last couple of years. Whilst the coronavirus pandemic saw a huge shift towards working and living online,  2021 has seen a belated but welcome focus on security and privacy, or indeed, the lack of, with the messaging apps we all have traditionally used. Facebook, the social media giant, actually saw its number of daily active users in the US and Canada fall by two million for the third quarter of 2020, declining to 196 million from 198 million in the second quarter of the year. Meanwhile, Twitter has seen a steady decline in its active users since 2019. More and more people are turning to encrypted chat apps for their communication. However, most messaging apps only provide you with end-to-end encryption (E2E). There has been a lack of true anonymity in apps with many chat apps claiming to offer privacy but still, ask you for personal information such as an email or a telephone number to use the service. This is not the true anonymity and privacy that people want. Quarashi offers a fully decentralized, blockchain-fueled community-driven chat app built on the principles of true privacy and anonymity, very much in the spirit of the initial blockchain projects almost a decade ago. Quarashi does not request or require any personal information to use. No phone number, email address or even location is requested ensuring maximum untraceable anonymity at all times. The Quarashi app is ad-free and third party access free. There are trackers and information sharing. To ensure complete safety there is a self-destructing option that deletes the message after a certain period of time. Message history is also hidden and a  secure screen option is available which means people are unable to take screenshots; an often used method of data and privacy leaks. The icing on the cake? The Quarashi app can act as an offline wallet without even necessarily needing a sim card. However, it is the appeal of the all-in-one Quarashi ecosystem and the privacy it offers, that can help explain the rise of the Quarashi Network since its August launch. The Quarashi multi-crypto wallet currently supports around 9000 digital currencies and usability on the Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain Networks. The wallet offers a unique interface that enables users to complete anonymous transactions, even using a text address or QR codes. Just a single wallet offering maximum privacy is needed for multiple assets – all of which can be tracked with charts by the user in real-time. Private keys are stored securely in the blockchain. However, they can always be imported to any non-custodial wallets such as Metamask or Trust Wallet if needed. Privacy and anonymity are central to the core of the Quarashi Network. Within the decentralized Quarashi ecosystem, there is also an IDO launchpad and VPN. The launchpad provides multi-chain compatibility, giving early access to new cryptocurrency projects through the platform in a secure and transparent manner. The VPN adds that extra layer of security of privacy and protection. As well as acting as a barrier against malware, phishing attacks and viruses, the VPN and bowser functionality enables safe and private trading of international markets, ensuring optimal anonymity and security in whatever you do. The Quarashi Network ecosystem is powered by the native digital asset – $QUA token – a multi-functional token utilized in the Quarashi platform. It is an ethereum-based (ERC-20), deflationary, fairly issued and 100% transparent digital currency that can be used for secure and anonymous transactions with low liquidity risk. As the global crypto community continues to grow at an exponential rate – the market size for cryptocurrency will get to $1087.7 million by 2026 – the Quarashi Network offers easy access to those not yet initiated in the crypto world. By bridging the gap between crypto and everyday messaging use, with full privacy, Quarashi Network provides the all-in-one solution that not just the crypto community have been clamouring for. People’s privacy and data security matter more than ever before. As governments around the world impose draconian measures and policies designed to limit our freedoms and our privacies, and as ‘Big Tech’ gets only bigger with the profits made on the back of our data, Quarashi Network is the Next Generation of platforms that takes the power back to the user. With the latest key milestone of the App going live on Google Play reached, the team at Quarashi Network are advancing through their roadmap at an impressive pace. The Quarashi app has been a resounding success and the number of downloads increasing daily. The next big milestone is the ICO stage 1 on October 1st. The eagerly-awaited ICO comes off the back of a successful pre-sale and launch. Investor interest has been steadily increasing in the Quarashi Network project and the completion of several key milestones combined with a clear and defined white paper and roadmap means that Quarashi Network may not be a name you are familiar with just yet, but soon will be. The Next Generation of decentralized ecosystems, offering a complete all-in-one truly private solution, is here and we will be hearing a lot more of the Quarashi Network in the…

We ask the buidlers in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector for their thoughts on the industry… and we throw in a few random zingers to keep them on their toes! This week, our 6 Questions go to Olga Kupchevskaya, vice president of research and development for MyEtherWallet.Olga is vice president of research and development for MyEtherWallet. She has a strong passion for learning, which brought her to blockchain technology and led her to complete a master’s in computer science, with research emphasis on blockchain scalability solutions. In her role with MyEtherWallet, she oversees the research, development and production of software products ranging from the Ethereum Blockchain data tools (EthVM) to wallet management.  1 — What kind of consolidation do you expect to see in the crypto industry in 2021?As far as price is concerned, Ether (ETH) will go to the moon, of course. We already saw that staking increased interest in the chain and brought the price higher than it was in 2017. If the Ethereum Foundation executes its promise of merging to the Mainnet and Beacon chains by the end of 2021, the value of ETH will be even further secured.In addition, we will see more consolidation in decentralized finance cross-chain functionality and bridging. Following the previous DeFi boom years, more and more users are interested in participating in different DeFi projects. It’s the next step for the projects to create maximum value for their users and gain an even higher market share.  2 — What are the top five Crypto Twitter feeds you can’t do without, and why?I do have a Twitter handle. However, I do not have a friendly relationship with Crypto Twitter. I will usually dedicate several minutes a week just to see if there is anything worthwhile. Most of the time, I am just checking our company’s partners or other big DeFi projects for interesting news or some educational content. Often, I get overwhelmed by the amount of speculation and misinformation out there in other channels and how much manipulation goes on in the feeds.We all have seen recent examples of Twitter activity where a big-time investor tweets some speculations or threats regarding their investments. Then, right after, we see people start vigorously buying or selling. As a result, we get significant price changes. Besides the fact that market manipulation is illegal in other industries — and that it is absurd one tweet can significantly influence the crypto market and cause chaos in the community — it does put a perspective on ethics standards in the Crypto Twitter community.Instead, I get most of my news from some dedicated crypto media platforms like Cointelegraph, CoinDesk, etc. and random crypto podcasts, where content is higher quality — and I don’t have to absorb the information in micro blocks without context.  3 — Which is sillier: $500,000 Bitcoin or $0 Bitcoin? Why?I feel that a Bitcoin (BTC) price at $0 is much sillier than $500,000. At the end of the day, the primary Bitcoin purpose is value transfer; even though it’s decentralized, it still has some common ground with centralized digital systems. Traditionally in financial systems, you have a middle man who will help store, manage and secure your assets, like a bank. And as with any business, the middle man has expenses, so you eventually pay some fees to it when you want to use your assets.With blockchain technology, you can do all of that yourself; however, there are still physical costs. Like any blockchain, Bitcoin is operated by nodes connected via a network. Bitcoin nodes perform computational work to verify transactions and make chain history accessible to other node peers. Each peer still has to be incentivized to perform the proof-of-work to cover equipment costs, electricity costs and so on. Even if Bitcoin started to implement proof-of-stake like Ethereum, there are still costs that one needs to cover, like ongoing node maintenance.  4 — Which two superpowers would you most want to have, and how would you combine them for good… or evil?My first ability would definitely be to clone myself while keeping the clone’s memory once we are joined back together. I feel that there are not enough hours during the day to do everything I want or even need to. For instance, there is so much innovation happening all around us in the industry, and I just don’t have enough time to educate myself deeply on all of the new concepts. Instead, I have to pick only certain things.The second would be flying — being able to get somewhere without any constraints is very attractive. By combining these powers, I would have the unique ability to offer free multi-route air taxi services to those in need as an alternative to regional airlines and their outrageous luggage fees. I’d have to work out the details to be able to show in-flight movies, but hey, the idea is there!  5 — What talent do you lack and wish you had? How would you use it if you had it?I definitely lack good public speaking skills. English is not my native language, and like most people, I tend to get very nervous. When I had to do frequent presentations in college, sometimes I would lose my train of thought in the middle of the sentence, and I forgot some words halfway while saying them out loud. Even though it has been a while since I experienced extreme nervousness, I still feel that I lack the qualities to give a speech to a large crowd I just met.I am lucky, as I now work with great team members who respect and motivate each other. However, I did experience my share of sexism and discrimination, and I know other people in the crypto and STEM industries are experiencing that now. If I were a great public speaker, I would want to influence and motivate people to talk about what they are going through, call out gender biases and take action. Adding to the existing dialog will help create more awareness and empower more women…

Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.Top Stories This WeekIndian crypto exchange CoinSwitch Kuber raises $260MIndian crypto exchange CoinSwitch Kuber closed a $260 million Series C funding round this week at a valuation of $1.91 billion, adding itself to the prestigious unicorn club.The funding round was led by Coinbase Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz, the latter of which has emerged as a leading crypto venture capital firm. Following the $1.91 billion valuation, CoinSwitch Kuber is said to be India’s most valued crypto firm.Speaking of funding, Sky Mavis, the developers of the immensely popular NFT game Axie Infinity, announced a $152 million Series B funding round on Tuesday. Unsurprisingly, Andreessen Horowitz backed the funding round along with participation from FTX. Ethereum fractal from 2017 that resulted in 7,000% gains for ETH appears again in 2021The same set of bullish indicators that sent Ether (ETH) surging 7,000% in 2017 has appeared again in 2021, suggesting that the asset is on track to reach the moon before Dogecoin (DOGE).The fractal indicator from 2017 consists of at least four technical patterns that were instrumental in pushing the price up, including the relative strength index (RSI), stochastic RSI, bullish hammer, and a Fibonacci retracement level. At the time of writing, Ether is worth $3,600, indicating that the price could hit $13,000 if history repeats itself. Federal High Court of Nigeria approves eNaira CBDC rolloutThe Nigerian Federal High Court has approved the rollout of the eNaira central bank digital currency (CBDC).  The CBDC was launched for beta testing on the nation’s 61st Independence Day celebration on Oct. 1 and has now been given the green light to circulate alongside its fiat counterpart. The CBDC is being touted as a faster, cheaper and more secure option for transactions. It will also be supported by an eNaira wallet. The official eNaira website says that the digital version of the Nigerian naira will be made available universally, stating that “anybody can hold it.” Judge rejects XRP hodlers’ bid to join SEC against Ripple case as defendantsThe ongoing legal dispute between Ripple Labs and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has taken another turn as U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres ruled on Monday that individuals holding XRP tokens cannot act in Ripple’s ongoing lawsuit as defendants. The ruling came after several ambitious XRP hodlers aimed to file “friends of the court” briefs which, if granted, would enable them to join the bloody battle as defendants, alongside Ripple, against SEC assertions of XRP being a security. The judge said the ruling was for their own good, as it would compel the trigger-happy SEC to take action against the XRP hodlers as well. However, it was determined that they could participate as “amicus curiae” — a party that is not involved in the litigation but is allowed by the court to advise or provide information. Bitcoin returns to $1T asset as BTC price blasts to $55KBitcoin (BTC) returned to its $1 trillion asset status this week as the price surged past $55,000. It appears that the damage caused by the China mining ban in May has been wiped clean, suggesting that there could be a run to new all-time highs in the coming weeks or months. At the time of writing, BTC is worth $54,900 and sits 14.9% below the all-time high. “Honestly, I think we’ll be continuing to see strength on Bitcoin,” Cointelegraph contributor Michaël van de Poppe said, adding: “USDT pairs will be fine on altcoins, but perhaps we’ll be having 6-8 weeks of some corrections on the $BTC pairs, before a new party starts. December/January is often the best period to buy alts.”  Winners and Losers  At the end of the week, Bitcoin is at $54,176, Ether at $3,612 and XRP at $1.07. The total market cap is at $2.30 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap. Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are SHIBA INU (SHIB) at 244.87%, Fantom (FTM) at 74.68% and Axie Infinity (AXS) at 47.02%.The top three altcoin losers of the week are eCash (XEC) at -10.20%, Huobi Token (HT) at -8.70% and Amp (AMP) at -6.85%.For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.   Most Memorable Quotations “Policymakers should implement global standards for crypto assets and enhance their ability to monitor the crypto ecosystem by addressing data gaps. […] Emerging markets faced with cryptoization risks should strengthen macroeconomic policies and consider the benefits of issuing central bank digital currencies.”International Monetary Fund “For us, digital assets are not about payments per se. They’re about a new computing paradigm – a programmable computer that is accessible everywhere and to anyone and owned by millions of people globally.”Bank of America Securities “We did a survey of our membership, and it was very impressive: 110 countries are at some stage of looking into CBDCs.”Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund “What a crazy concept this is, that we as a country embrace so many bright, young, talented people to come up with a replacement for our reserve currency. […] I wish all this passion and energy that went to crypto was directed towards making the United States stronger.”Ken Griffin, founder of Citadel LLC  “The best way to look at it, if you’re an investor, either you believe in decentralized finance and centralized finance, and you believe in Bitcoin and Ethereum and the blockchain, or you don’t. If you don’t, stay in gold as a hedge, and if you do, tip into it.”Kevin O’Leary, Shark Tank Judge “I’m not going to get into any one token, but I think the securities laws are quite clear — if you’re raising money […] and the investing public […] have a reasonable anticipation of profits based on the efforts of others, that fits within the securities law.”Gary Gensler, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission “My bill with Congresswoman Ross would set disclosure requirements when ransoms are…