The DeFi Academy, or DeFi Accelerator, is a decentralized finance investment course by Brian Rose. It is one, among other, courses of the London Real Academy, which is the e-learning part of Longstem Limited, also known as London Real. He has been the subject of many negative press reviews and scandals for issues in his business practices, fundraising campaign, politics, and others, which we will also cover in this DeFi Academy review.
What is the course about and what do you get in it? Do you receive legit training and does Brian deliver on his promises? What is the future of decentralized finance and cryptocurrency? Read along and we will answer these questions.
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Brian Rose Controversies
As I mentioned at the start, Brian Rose has been involved in many controversies. I've gathered some of these issues that may help you judge the credibility of Brian Rose and his program.
Here we have a few reviews of previous employees of London Real who are calling them out:
Brian Rose's podcast and YouTube channel, London Real, is famous for spreading conspiracy theories. He has published five interviews with conspiracy theorist David Icke in which the latter makes false claims about COVID-19. YouTube, Facebook, and Spotify later removed the recordings.
Brian then ran a fund-raising campaign in order to set up a Digital Freedom Platform (DFP) that he claims will uphold the right to free speech and avoid the censorship of major tech companies. The fund raiser would make over its target of $1M and would raise suspicions about how Brian spent the money, which led him to being featured in a Vice news article.
Vice news Brian Rose header
With his 2 and 1/2 hour video stream, speaking about COVID-19 and lockdown issues, being taken down by YouTube for violating community standards, Fox News would feature Brian in an interview with Judge Jeanie.
In 2021, Brian campaigned as a mayoral candidate in London. During an interview with some London youths, he abruptly made an excuse and left when questioned about his championing of free speech and the deleted comments on his sites.
Nic Gabriel, Brian Rose's former co-host on London Real, who was abruptly dropped in 2013, spoke out in an interview in which he warned people about the London mayoral candidate. These are just a few of the controversies surrounding Brian Rose. It might pay to do your due diligence before deciding if this course will benefit you.
Who Is Brian Rose?
Brian Rose is the American-born host of London Real TV. He is a well-known name in the world of finance and politics with 2.1M YouTube subscribers. His videos feature talks and interviews with celebrities on various topics; lifestyle talks and advice, movies created by Brian, and others.
Brian took mechanical engineering at MIT, where he was recruited to work on Wall Street. He worked as a fixed-income derivatives trader from 1993 to 1997 in New York City and Chicago. In 1997, he moved to London, England to work as a senior derivative broker for ICAP, a global interdealer broker company. He moved back to New York in 1999 during the dot-com boom to work as the CFO for luxuryfinder.com.
In 2002, he returned to his London job and stayed there until 2011, when he founded Longstem Limited and London Real TV. Brian established the London Real Academy in 2015, which would run courses such as the Business Accelerator and the Decentralized Finance Accelerator. He claims the academy has graduated over 6K students from over 100 countries.
He ran in the 2021 London mayoral election and the 2021 London Assembly election for his own London Real Party. During this time, he was the subject of many controversies, including being fined by police for breaking lockdown rules while filming promotional material for his campaign, which caused him to be banned from campaigning for a time.
What Is Decentralized Finance?
Decentralized finance (DeFi) uses blockchain technology to eliminate the use of third parties and centralized institutions, such as banks, from financial transactions. DeFi has grown in popularity over the years because of the various benefits it offers:
- With DeFi, there are no transfer limits or fees for transactions. Crypto transactions usually have very low or no transfer fees, and there are no charges for international transfers.
- Blockchain technology records the information of transactions in a set of blocks (networks). The amount of trade, as a digital ledger, is distributed across the entire blockchain network. This makes it virtually impossible to hack, manipulate, or cheat on any DeFi platform.
- You have 24/7 access to your money with no delay. There is no paperwork required; simply open an account in any digital wallet.
There are 2 kinds of cryptocurrency:
- Crypto coins belong to networks that were built from the ground up and are bought from the ground up. Someone spent a lot of time and money to create a reliable coin. Ex: BTC (Bitcoin)
- Crypto tokens are easy to create, often in a matter of minutes, and are digital certificates of ownership for physical or digital art pieces (NFTs). Ex: USDC (USD Coin)
Pros and Cons of DeFi Academy
Pros
Brian has 30 years of experience trading in the stock market.
Course teaches about investing in an emerging industry which has huge potentials.
Weekly live calls with Brian Rose.
Cons
The course is pricey.
The program only lasts 4 months.
Brian Rose and his company has received many negative press.
Price
Starts at $2,497 for the 4-week crash course.
Refund Policy
Reviews claim that the refund policies they give are not honored,
Origin
DeFi Academy founded in 2021
Who Is London Real DeFi Academy For?
Brian established DeFi Academy with the goal of educating people on the future of money via cryptocurrency, decentralized finance, and blockchain technology. He argues everyone should invest in DeFi as it is the future. However, he also warns of the risks that it involves and that it is not a get rich quick scheme that can take a very long time to turn a profit. If this course is not for you, you can check Decentralized Masters.
Overview of London Real DeFi Academy
The course teaches you how to move funds via hot or cold wallet, and all about blockchain technology. You will learn how to invest in cryptos (such as Bitcoins, Ethereum, Solana, etc.), crypto trading options, and how to move them around and position them for the future.
The DeFi Academy course comes in 4 modules spanning 4 weeks. These are a collection of training videos, workbooks, and 2 hours a week of live calls with Brian Rose. They have a team of over 10 staff that work as team leaders, instructors, and community managers. They will also give you access to the private Facebook group.
London Real DeFi Academy Course Outline
The entire course is a 4 week bootcamp. Here are the 4 weekly modules:
The first module will cover the history of cryptocurrency and decentralized finance, starting from the creation of Bitcoin in 2009 to Ethereum 2.0 in 2021. The topics are:
- Bitcoin Creation in 2009
- Ethereum Creation in 2015
- The launch of Maker (MKR) and evolution of smart contract
- The first DEX or decentralized exchanges
- The ICO boom and bust of 2017
- Creation of the “user to contract” model
- Uniswap and the creation of liquidity pools
- Synthetix
- “Black Thursday” 2020
- Compound liquidity mining
- The “DeFi Summer” 2020
- The emergence of yield farming
- Ethereum 2.0 and more
Weekly live Zoom calls for the keynote and workshop training and to learn about the history of blockchain finance.
- How to efficiently buy BTC, ETH, DAI, Stablecoins & Altcoins
- How to bulletproof and understand your hot and cold storage systems and wallets
- Understanding CEXs vs. DEXs and which marketplace suits you
- Execute your first swap with multiple platforms
- How to finance your coins and the basics of yield farming
- Complex money markets explained
- Understanding liquidity pools, smart contracts and DeFi insurance
- Derivatives and the future of DeFi
- How to manage risk by controlling your emotions
- Placing asymmetrical trades for long-term gains
- Managing a portfolio of assets
- Setting up and understanding stop/loss orders
- How to keep on top of the market
- Brian’s positions and picks for the future
- How Brian manages risk and his emotions
- Lessons Brian he learned from 30 years of trading the financial markets
Are Students of DeFi Academy Successful?
Most courses post success stories or testimonials from their students as proof of their legitimacy. Unfortunately, this is not the case for London Real. Even more concerning is if you match the lack of student success posts with all the complaints posted online.
Here are some of the positive reviews on DeFi Academy and London Real. You'll notice that there are no specifics of any successes.
And here are a couple of negative reviews:
They posted most of the positive reviews consecutively, which makes us doubt their authenticity. If you want to know how effective, the course is before you take it, you are out of luck. Take these reviews with a grain of salt.
Is Investing in DeFi and Crypto Worth It in 2024?
There is no doubt about the benefits of using a crypto platform as a safer alternative to digital currency. However, is it worth investing in cryptocurrency exchanges in 2024? Just like most investment opportunities, the crypto industry has its own risks.
The lack of centralization means if something were to happen, there would be a lack of accountability. This also makes trading crypto a very unpredictable investment. It may also take years to profit from investing in DeFi.
DeFi investing is not a passive income model that can bring you a stable, predictable income. Local lead generation is a business model that can provide you with a consistent income flow by renting out your ranked sites to local businesses. It doesn’t cost much to set up, and it is easy to maintain as it can stay ranked for years. It is also an easy-to-scale business model.
Having a predictable passive income business can bring you financial freedom. You can even use that income to invest in crypto. This makes Local Lead Generation my top business recommendation.
