Money Means Freedom

When travelling in shark infested waters, bring a shark friendly friend.

I have decided that I want to be Robert Beadles’, otherwise known as Crypto Beadles, BBF. It is not because he is a very successful businessman, not because he runs a very popular youtube channel, not because he travels in large groups of friends and families to very fun-sounding places and not because he is co-founder and builder of the Monarch decentralized çrypto wallet. Those are all very worthy and admirable reasons for wanting to be friends with someone. Success is very attractive. However, it is more for his attraction to sharks, or rather their attraction to him, that makes me think if I were in deep water and surrounded by sharks, I’d like my splashing partner to be Robert.

He has a very easy manner and modest method of speech. At one point he says that as a young man he joined a construction company at the bottom of the ladder but within a year and a half he was running it. This speed of turnaround sounds like it needs an acknowledgement like a high five, but there is no drama in the statement. It only when I put down my pen and ask ‘how did he do it?’ that Robert replies: “Through the grace of God and hard work.”

It seems reasonable but we all know the two elements are not necessarily guarantors for success. Yet Robert has been able to replicate such transformation time and again. Whatever about the former, and his faith is palatable throughout our conversation, the latter cannot be denied.

“I cannot sit still.”

“I cannot sit still.” And he demonstrates by moving back from his desk and camera – he is at a standing desk for the interview.

He does not take time off. Towards the end of the interview I asked him what he does for downtime.

“Downtime, hmmmm not sure I have any. Mostly when not actually working I like to travel with my family and friends, often in large groups, to fun places but I’ll be happiest with my laptop out and working in the midst of them.”

Robert does travel a lot. He speaks a lot too. He lists off about six conferences in six different countries when I ask about his itinerary for the next couple of months. He is always on the go.

As a young man he was similar. He loved marital arts and baseball. School less so. He got his geekon at a young age, possessing a first Macintosh, a Commodore and an Amiga before the arrival of the first PCs. He set up a bulletin board system with his friends while at school and totally hogged the one and only land line into the family home. Times were different then.

He also met his wife and long term partner when they were both in school aged 14. An immediate match, the early arrival of his elder son while they were only 17 propelled them into marriage and propelled Robert away from college career.

“I had responsibilities: I needed a J.O.B not a PhD.”

From an early age of 6 Robert had held down jobs. He had multiple paper runs, worked as a cleaner, posted flyers – you name it, he has done it. He also worked in construction with his girlfriend’s father while in school. It was an unpaid internship but he learnt fast.

When his personal responsibilities hit, he needed a salary. That is when he joined the construction company and rose to the boss in that short period.

“I had an argument one day with the owner. He was tough to work with having all kinds of mental conditions. Basically he said if you can do better, go and create your own company.”

A tough period intervened where Robert had to save up money to get his required construction licenses to be a contractor, It took about six months to pass his tests and he opened his own business, selling personal effects to afford to buy a truck and equipment. Later on he mentions living on the social and depending on food stamps. He knows it is not easy and then he says.

“We started off as me and one other guy but in a short time we had over a 1000 employees and are now one of the largest service companies in California.”

Bang – there he does it again. I stop again and ask how does he do it? Robert looks a little puzzled as if I am asking a difficult or problematic question.

“I guess I have an idea about where I want to go. It’s like joining up the dots and following the path. God is always guiding me.”

Being a large employer does not faze Robert. He does not see the employees as merely that.

“We are like a large family. We look out for each other. I ensure they are well paid and that gives me freedom to not be there all the time. It works well.”

It is indeed well that Robert can take time off from one of California’s largest services companies as he is busy delivering in the crypto world.

His path into technology was not typical. He first created a reusable envelope for the US Postal Service. He then fired up a software company that created personalised greeting cards using digital services. The US Postal Service liked what they saw and found many other uses for this solution. Robert was soon working with the US Postal Service on numerous software and retail solutions.

Max Keiser, soon to become a friend to Robert (also a friend to the Irish decimated by the banks in Ireland), who talked about bitcoin being the people’s money

That not sitting still, or at all for that matter, came into play and next Robert discovered bitcoin. His initial introduction was through videos presented by Max Keiser, soon to become a friend to Robert (also a friend to the Irish decimated by the banks in Ireland), who talked about bitcoin being the people’s money. Not a lover of centralized banking systems Max was a popular early advocate of bitcoin in 2011.

“I actually felt I came to bitcoin late. I started buying bitcoin from people in car parks. It was a weird experience,” Robert says.

At this point I intervene again and suggest from what I knew of my watery BBF he had not lived a dissolute life as a teenager and that drug purchasing in car parks had not prepared him for face to face crypto trading.

“No.”

I thought as much.

Throughout his career, Robert has believed in the principle of being self-taught and bitcoin was no different. Soon he became very involved. So much so that when the bitcoin run happened in 2017 his friends reckoned he was the go-to man.

“I found I was repeating myself time and again explaining the same basics. I made some videos to share and Crypto Beadles was born.”

Today there 86 000 plus subscribers. It is always free and in fact for each video Robert gives away $100 of bitcoin.

“For people to get into crypto, they need to hold it, whether it is earned or bought – but the easiest way is for people to receive it as a gift. Then they are vested in the sector.”

Around the same time, Robert wanted to solve a problem – he wanted to create a wallet for the people that would be free. He wanted the people in charge of the people’s money.

The Monarch Wallet was born. “Where everyone is their own sovereign of their own money – King or Queen.”

With Sneh Bhatt he launched the Monarch Wallet in March of last year. Unlike other entities in this space, he did not initially raise OP money (OP = other peoples) but self-funded the project with his in-house DevOps.team. There are a lot of new features on the wallet with more added frequently.

The Monarch wallet has a fiat gateway, crypto held in the wallet earns interest, there are news streams, trading platforms and coin support. This week too the Monarch wallet launches the world’s first decentralized recurring payments platform for merchants. Now merchants anywhere can receive stable, non-volatile cryptocurrency for payments from their users or subscribers,

“Unlike other exchanges and wallets, you and you alone are in charge of your money. We can’t touch it, mess with it or take it from you.   This is very important – you are the sovereign of your own money.”

There are multiple revenue streams within the Monarch corporation – from SEC and FINRA pending broker dealer license to transaction fees to listing fees for security tokens. Robert encourages me to view his roadmap – where he says “we have and still intend to hit every milestone on our roadmap. We are just adding feature after feature. In time, we see it as app that does everything and people will not know they are using blockchain – it’ll be as intuitive as using social media. That clunky side to crypto will disappear as more money rolls in and more products roll out.”

Finally when I ask him what money means to him – my last firm question – the answer is not in doubt.

“Money means freedom.”