World Cup is dominating everyone’s conversation but more with what is happening off the pitch than on.

In particular, the win of my close neighbor over Sweden at the weekend has really catapulted the Three Lions song from 1996 to be the English nation’s new national footie anthem. It’s less the actual song, which was created a spoof comedy song, but the new memes springing up daily that is very funny. I think the English have taken a leaf out of Ireland’s Green Army’s book where the fans and the singing is as, if not more, important than the football on the pitch. So while they may have eventually crashed out in a close match with Croatia the memory of the song may outline the memory of the footie.

But enough of world cup, over to crypto. What did we find of interest this week?

Uganda was starring but not in a good way with a proposed social media, or ‘gossip’, tax imposed on the citizens. The tax, which would cost in the region of 5c a day, was brought in by 32 year reigning President Mr Museveni to much complaining. In an ironic gesture he posted a personal blog behind the tax – using social media.

It is a shame as Uganda was selected by Binance CEO CZ for his first African exchange last month. Binance also created a fiat crypto pair with the Ugandian Shilling. Crypto is important to Uganda as only 33% of the population are banked.

Binance was in the news also (when is it ever not) for a hack on July 3rd that saw one SYS coin sold for 96bitcoin. It was said the wallet that was fleeced belonged to Binance. However, since CZ is quoted as saying he predicted first year net revenue to be in the region of $1 billion we don’t think he’d mind too much.

On other exchange news  China-based FCoin – a new crypto exchange launched in May has taken a novel revenue model approach and has come under the spotlight after its trading volumes appear to have almost immediately surpassed some of the largest exchanges.

FCoin was offering to refund all transactions costs in its own coin and as a result had more than $5.6 billion in trading volume in 24 hours  – more than the sum of the top ten crypto exchanges combined.

Others in the industry, including CZ, have complained saying the transfee mining model was just another way to run in ICO – banned in China of course. Yet other exchanges are thinking about following suit.

Funny news emerged from the founder of Dogecoin, Jackson Palmer. He set up a Twitter bot that mixes the badly written erotic bdsm from 50 Shades with a tonne of cryptocurrency white papers. The result? A Twitter account that spews out random and eclectic BDSM blockchain thoughts.  Follow the Fifty Shades of Blockchain at @blockshade.

Of course it is not the first time 50 Shades has been parodied and I think fondly of the storm of tweets under the #Irishshadesofgrey during the summer of 2012 and converted into a book by my pal Paul Duggan. You can find the book here.

Holders of Tezos, the much mangled fund beset by lawyers and legals on all sides, had a bit of a blow out selling thousands of the coin. While it was yet another saga in the ingoing story out of Zug, it does mean there is fresh coins available for investment in other ICOs.

Winners and losers in June were listed by CryptoNews – as Liina says it was more who lost least than who won. Try saying that with plums in your mouth but it is worth including.

And finally a real world practical story from Cardano which I have decided is my new fav alt coin. The holding company has signed an agreement with the Ethiopian government to work in the country’s coffee business, providing transparency on the farm to coffee cup supply trail. Also, as land ownership is often contested, they are using the Cardano blockchain to register title and reduce violence in disputes. So that sounds good.

And of course the markets have stayed relatively stable this week. Neither up nor down which is nice overall. It is the middle of the year so this stability is wanted and possibly an indicator for more positive moves going towards the end of the year.

So, overall a good week for crypto and the singing English football fans.

This article was submitted to the IrishCentral contributors network by a member of the global Irish community. To become an IrishCentral contributor click here.