Exclusive interview with Crypto Beadles on becoming a monarch

Robert Beadles is best known as “Crypto Beadles”, the host of one of the industry’s top YouTube channels about all things crypto. But beyond bringing interested parties the stories of developing blockchain companies, he’s on a mission to educate, advise, and increase awareness.

He’s also the co-founder and president of Monarch Token, a complete fiat-to-crypto exchange with a decentralised universal crypto wallet. Oh, and if that wasn’t enough, Robert has also created numerous multi-million dollar companies.

Beadles just happens to be one of the nicest and most humble people you could ever hope to meet, frequently signing off his communications with upbeat phrases like “You’re the best!” just to make you smile.

Unlike many influencers in the space who allow their own cynicism or egos to cloud their judgment, Rob likes to keep an open mind. He admits to getting a little tired of hearing project after project overpromising and under-delivering. But he still gives everyone on his show an equal chance to tell their own stories.

He also never tires of helping people or doing the heavy lifting in life. In fact, he sees the work ahead of him in his own words as “building the empire brick by brick”.

So, what’s it like being a cryptocurrency influencer? What motivates Rob to push forward in blockchain technology when it still feels like we’re in the analogue phase, and where does he see this whole thing going? I caught “Crypto” Robert Beadles on the other end of the microphone for a change – and here’s what he had to say.

When did Robert Beadles fall down the rabbit hole?

What got Robert Beadles so fascinated with the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain that he felt compelled to work in it, educate, advise, and push the industry forward?

“Well, Max Keiser [who he would later interview] is the guy who opened my eyes to cryptocurrency back in 2011”, he enthuses. “He was talking about how the financial crisis that we were all facing globally was due in large part to central banks and big corporations and things like that. He said this thing called Bitcoin was going to save the day…

“So that opened my eyes to Bitcoin and blockchain and all the cool things and freedoms they can give us with regards to being able to take our currencies anywhere in the world without needing an intermediary.

“From that point on, I just fell in love. My family and friends all knew that I was working in crypto for a long time and that I owned a software development company. We actually built software for people like the United States Post Office and big companies like that.

“They were always asking questions all the time. ‘What do you think about this one?’, and would I buy, sell, or ‘what about this exchange, or this project?’. So, finally, enough of them told me, ‘hey you should just create a channel and walk us through the steps and create a video that tells us how to do everything. Then that way you don’t have to keep answering the same questions over and over!’”.

So, Crypto Beadles came into being as a free source of information. Rob explains that he started out with all the basic information about how crypto works, where to buy it, how to store it – and to be very careful when investing.

Even in the glory days, Rob was warning people about crypto’s volatility

Rob never takes payment from projects, stressing on his Twitter account:

“I always let people know that it’s extremely volatile and it can go to zero, so never invest in anything that you’re not 100% willing to lose. I said all this stuff back in 2017 when we were at the highest of highs and people thought I was crazy. But they’ve seen I wasn’t crazy, I was being honest.

“A lot of people are trying to take advantage of others. So I just wanted to be the voice for the people to guide them and shepherd them through the blockchain arena, keep them out of trouble and keep their money in their pockets. It just blossomed from friends and family to being one of the top 10 crypto channels in the world”.

Rob is very cautious about reminding his 70,000+ subscribers that none of what he says can be taken as financial advice. Everyone should do their own due diligence and get the advice of a financial planner before investing in anything.

But, there are a lot of things that Rob, being based in the United States, isn’t allowed to say for regulatory reasons. So, on that topic, I asked what he thinks of the situation in the states.

Is the lack of regulatory guidance inhibiting innovation in the US?

“Yes, you can see places that are starting to thrive that had a depressed economy and how some of the blockchain companies are moving in and generating income for these countries. So I think the US, we’re the global superpower, right? I think people know that we’ve always been really good at innovating things.

“There are enough smart people in the regulatory system here in America that aren’t going to shut crypto down. They’re going to start playing ball so they don’t start becoming a second-class country and falling behind some other country that embraces blockchain as it changes the world”.

He laughs, realising that he’s taking things to the extreme.

“But seriously, I think that they could do a much better job of clarity about what’s legal and what’s not, what the rules and regulations are versus pointing at something that’s 80 or 90 years old, like the Howey Test.

“That’s basically about an orange grove, investments and oranges and lands that don’t really apply to crypto. We definitely need clarity, we definitely need regulation. You can’t just have it as the Wild Wild West. But they need to do it quickly because it is stifling innovation… So, hopefully, they’ll figure it out”.

Robert Beadles on becoming a monarch

Robert Beadles has many plates spinning in the air at once. I asked him to tell me more about his own cryptocurrency project Monarch and what stage of production it’s in.

“Monarch works now!” he exclaims. “That’s one of the beauties of it… Monarch is essentially one place, one app, that you can control your financial freedom from. So whether you want to buy and sell crypto using fiat, earn interest on your crypto, follow the news, the market, your portfolio, crowdfund an idea, participate in indexes, report your tax liabilities, you’ll be able to, and you won’t need 15 different apps…

“It will all be in one place – you can take it with you anywhere”.

A working product before a token sale

Unlike so many blockchain companies that raise funds to build the product, Robert and Sneh (his co-founder) did things the other way around.

He explains: “So when we launched, we didn’t say ‘hey, we have an idea, give us a whole bunch of money and then we’re going to build it for you’. We launched with an actual product as we put our token sale out there.

“We’ve done more in our project than 95% of the businesses out there, at least 90% of them. We’ve done more than them and we’re still in a token sale!”.

Robert Beadles can trace his family history back to the British monarchs. I asked if that’s where he got the name from. He admits that was partly at play. However, it has more to do with the fact that Rob and Sneh are “big fans of Game of Thrones and Dungeons and Dragons”.

They also thought it would be “kind of cool that anybody could be their own King or Queen, anyone could be their own monarch. So everybody would be able to control their own finances, nobody would need a dictator or a third party, they could rule their own financial kingdom from the palm of their hand”.

The best is yet to come

Monarch is already available to download from the Apple Store or Google Play. And Robert says, “You haven’t seen anything yet, we’ve got some really cool people coming on board and a ton of stuff coming up”.

Not only does the wallet allow you to own your own private keys unlike Coinbase, but it’s also some 5.5% cheaper than Coinbase when buying crypto.

And in fact, just this week, at the same time as BlockFi and Gemini announced their cryptocurrency interest accounts for Bitcoin and Ethereum, Monarch is offering interest to wallet holders of up to 7%.

When I ask Robert what he thinks of the BlockFi project, you can tell that he’s not their greatest fan. But he appreciates what they’re doing and acknowledges that competition is good for the community and crypto space in general.

“We’ve got a much better partner, we have a legend on board with us!”. Monarch has teamed up with Alex Mashinsky, the creator of VOIP technology.

“He owns a company called Celsius which does loans as well as interest, and so that’s our partner that we deeply integrated with Monarch… I like Alex a lot better, his track record is simply incredible at delivering”.

So what about people who want to learn more about Monarch and start using the wallet?

“People should stay up on our socials”, Rob advises. “We’re not one of those idea companies, we’re a delivery company. So every week, every month, we’re delivering new things”.

Any parting advice for people interested in getting into crypto?

He pauses for a moment before stressing that it’s very important to do a lot of research. “For people who want to get into crypto, figure out why you want to get into crypto. Is it just because you think it’s going to go up? Or is it because you find the tech really useful?

“If you’re just intrigued by the whole thing, that’s awesome. Find out more. Start with Andreas Antonopoulos and read his books, watch his videos. Get a deeper understanding of how blockchain works…

“And if it’s just for crypto investing, well, be very, very careful. And maybe join up with Alcoholics Anonymous now. Because when the ride ends for those investors (and in 90% of the time it does), the bottle is going to be their best friend”.