Media personality and businessman Sbusiso ‘DJ Sbu’ Leope says it was his experience of being conned by cryptocurrency fraudsters and losing a lot of money in the process that encouraged him to learn more about the industry and also empower others.
DJ Sbu and his long-term business partner Dezray Thomas have joined forces with the founder of Crypto University Grey Jabesi to share new financial knowledge with curious South Africans.
“So my company Leadership 2020 has partnered with Crypto University on a project called Learn Crypto. And we also have Macgyver (Mukwevho) who's come on board with ‘Podcast and Chill’. And our aim is to empower the youth, women and every member of the previously disadvantaged community,” said DJ Sbu.
“The partnership has formed a show under ‘Podcast and Chill’ called ‘Crypto and Chill’, which happens on MacG’s platform,” added DJ Sbu.
The former Metro FM presenter was the first South African musician to sell 10 pieces of NFTs ( non-fungible tokens) in three days with his forthcoming album, “DJ Sbu Enters The Metaverse”, and he has since continued to thrive in the world of digital currency.
“Many people reject the idea of cryptocurrency because they’ve had negative stories of people getting scammed. I was also scammed and it was that experience that motivated me to want to learn more about this world of cryptocurrency.
“People must understand it's not crypto that is the scam, it's the people who scam others, hence the need to provide the much-needed knowledge around the industry.
“Bitcoin started in 2009 and now, it’s about 13 years old and it has grown into an industry of over a trillion dollars.
“And it's not only just about money. When you're talking crypto, a lot of people think you’re talking about money or investing money. The more I started learning about crypto, the more I started understanding that it's actually about the technology.
“That is the technology that crypto currently exists on. The blockchain technology will even enable us to vote online in the future, it will enable a lot of things to be more transparent.
“They call it a digital revolution. From the eCommerce side of things, young people are using social media platforms such as TikTok to generate income.
“But then that's what crypto has become is not only just digital money, but it's a whole new world where the web 3.0 (the third generation of the evolution of web technologies) and the metaverse are currently being built for the future.
DJ Sbu further explained that he feels South Africans are being left behind, which is why he is targeting everyone who is curious about this new digital revolution.
“There are also NFTs, people don’t know what those are. So, there’s a lot for people to learn and I thought, let me contribute as well and partner with other people who know better than I do so that we start doing, webinars and courses … we start giving people the opportunity to learn for free.”
On what has inspired the decision to embark on this project DJ Sbu said: “I think my desire to see everyone succeed is inspired by where I come from and what I have experienced.
“I know the struggle of growing up ekasi (township) with nothing. So I always just want to be the big brother who does his bit in contributing to the good of society.
“And having tasted success and having become irresponsible with my money when I was young has always made me that person who's not afraid to claim my mistakes and use them as a teaching tool for young people.
“I always want to share my journey with young people and ensure that they don’t make similar mistakes.
DJ Sbu and his partners are hosting the first session at the AMPD Studios, Newtown Junction, Johannesburg, on Friday at 12pm. For more information on the course, follow DJ Sbu on social media.