Robert Beadles, widely recognized as "Crypto Beadles," the founder and CEO of Individual, an all-in-one cryptocurrency wallet, believes that the crypto industry urgently needs an interoperable protocol capable of converting various digital coins into spendable currency. During an exclusive interview with CryptoSlate, Beadles shared his insights on the current state of the cryptocurrency sector and discussed how it continues to evolve and strengthen.
"A great product sells itself" is a timeless business principle that perfectly applies to the Individual wallet. Designed as a comprehensive all-in-one solution for all crypto-related needs, the success of Individual can largely be attributed to its visionary founder—Robert Beadles.
While the humble Beadles credits the steady growth of his company to the exceptional team behind it, his entrepreneurial vision and drive are what make Individual one of the most popular decentralized wallets in the cryptocurrency industry today.
In his conversation with CryptoSlate, Beadles revealed that he began his career with a California-based construction company before transitioning to software development. Listening to a Max Keiser report back in 2011 sparked his interest in what he calls the "crypto bug," Beadles explained. After achieving tremendous success with his YouTube channel, CryptoBeadles, he went on to establish Individual, a decentralized cryptocurrency wallet designed to empower users.
When discussing the decision to keep Individual free for users, he stated:
"It's critically important that people have the ability to control their own financial sovereignty."
Beadles self-funds Individual from his own resources, he explains, noting that a portion of the money invested in developing new services comes from minimal revenue streams. As Individual offers payment and exchange services as well, it generates income from merchant transaction fees. The company also plans on launching an ICO platform in the near future, though details about the project remain under wraps for now.
However, despite Individual being completely decentralized, Beadles is acutely aware of the challenges that decentralized platforms present. These platforms tend to be more intimidating to newcomers in the crypto space, which is why Individual is working diligently to ensure its platform remains as user-friendly as possible.
The golden era for decentralized platforms is yet to arrive, he predicts, as wider adoption will make people more aware of the actual trade-offs that centralized platforms entail.
The expansion of the cryptocurrency industry has intensified the divide between Bitcoin maximalists and advocates for greater diversity in the crypto ecosystem. Beadles, despite holding approximately 80 percent of his personal assets in BTC, firmly believes there's more to the crypto world than just Bitcoin. He stated:
"I love Bitcoin, but I'm not naive enough to think that it's the ultimate solution for all these other projects."
However, having numerous utility coins in the market comes with its drawbacks—particularly the lack of usability. Beadles believes people should have the freedom to hold as many different coins as they desire, but that they'll eventually need to be converted into something "universal." He elaborated:
"What we need is some kind of interoperable system, some type of protocol where no matter what coins you have, they can be automatically converted into spendable currency."
And this isn't the only bold idea Beadles has—his perspectives on some of the most controversial developments in crypto are surprisingly positive. Government bans on cryptocurrency trading could ultimately benefit the crypto sector, as could Facebook's Libra project, he suggested. The crackdown on crypto mining in China would eventually help the industry, he argued, as shutting down massive operations would bring much-needed decentralization to mining.
The more people adopt cryptocurrency, the better it will fare in the long run. Nevertheless, Beadles avoided making any specific predictions about Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency, stating that making "outlandish and bold" predictions would be disingenuous to his customers.
Despite this, the long-term outlook on Bitcoin remains overwhelmingly positive. The fact that it's immutable and easily traceable will eventually make it appealing to governments, he explained, though he added that at the end of the day, cryptocurrency investing still carries inherent risks.
Beadles will be a featured speaker at TF4 Blockchain Summit, taking place on Thursday, November 14 in Seattle.
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