The WholesomeCrypto Podcast

Jan 14, 2023

Jack Calbi - From Spinal Cord Injury to Crypto Pioneer

Join Jack Calbi as he shares his inspirational story of perseverance in the face of adversity. Hear how he recovered from his devastating injury and became a leader in the crypto space, using NFTs to finance groundbreaking medical research. Gain insights and advice from Jack as he candidly talks about his experience in the world of crypto and spinal cord injuries, offering support and guidance to those newly injured. Get inspired and learn how Jack is bravely overcoming life’s challenges and making a difference in the world! Links Spinal Cord NFT WholesomeCrypto This following post was generated using AI via dubb.media 🤖 Transcript: [0:00:00] Jack: And it's an image of my life changing injury that out of all the scans of a spinal cord in the world, this one definitely had a lot of impact. Unfortunately, not so good, but it's caused a lot of challenges in my life and for my family, although I will say those challenges have gotten me to a point where, you know, I'm a stronger person and so is everyone else around me. [0:00:22] Rudy: I'm Rudy Dogum, and this is wholesome crypto. Here I speak with crypto experts, influencers, and entrepreneurs to find out what personally led them to the path of cryptocurrency. Welcome Jack Calvin to the wholesome Crypto podcast. Thank you so much for joining me today. [0:00:38] Jack: Hey, glad to be here. Thanks for having me. [0:00:40] Rudy: Yeah, I really appreciate you taking the time. And, yeah, I know you're working on a few projects now. I know you're part of the DS tire world and the Spinal Cord NFT project. That's something you're creating and working on. And before we go into everything about that, I'll have to learn a little bit more about Jack and what he was doing before even hearing about cryptocurrencies. [0:00:59] Jack: Sure. Cryptocurrencies obviously knew in everyone's life to some degree, but I personally was not involved in crypto until maybe 2017. Just joining the hype of that bull run, getting in on some bitcoin and small amounts, nothing crazy. I was a college student at the time and was working through that. I was newly injured, which I'll get into that story in a bit. And that's the inspiration for my project, spinal Cord NFT. Around that time, I was just getting started, going deep into things like physical therapy and then also medical research, which I would be a participant in in one form or another, and also doing a little bit of fundraising for nonprofits. It would be another two or three years till I finished college, which was right at the beginning of the pandemic. So it's been a rocky few years, to say the least. And since then, having eventually finished school, crypto offered me a way to make some sort of a living, make some sort of a network without relying on larger institutions who were not willing to take a gamble on me at that time, at a time of extreme world change. Right, yeah. [0:02:12] Rudy: They weren't taking anybody in at all for anything other than COVID. If you had some of those injuries, it was tough to get in. [0:02:18] Jack: Exactly, yeah. A unique situation on top of a unique situation. From there. I saw opportunity in the crypto space. I really liked some of the ethos of personal sovereignty ownership. I thought a lot of the stuff that I learned about during that time, especially around 2020, was projects like Ocean Protocol that were offering marketplace for data and just for data science in general. Obviously, there was some financial incentive to get involved, but also a lot of curiosity and a lot of passion of course. [0:02:51] Rudy: And when you first heard about it, what was that platform you heard? Was it from a friend or just the Internet? [0:02:57] Jack: Yeah, I had a friend who was early in the crypto movement who said to me, hey, give this a shot. He gave me some pointers. My good friend, I won't name him, but works for a big analytics firm in crypto space. It's been kind of cool seeing his journey. I'm obviously on my own path here as well, but I'm applying crypto in my own way, which I think there's a lot of use cases, and I think we need to rely on those solid use cases at least, because we've obviously seen that some projects can fall apart, but others will stand the test. [0:03:30] Rudy: Absolutely. [0:03:31] Jack: Yeah. [0:03:31] Rudy: It's tough because when you first hear about cryptocurrencies, it's like, what do you think of it? It's just like money, I guess. I could move money between people. That's awesome. But did you get into it before the NFT and D Five summer, I guess? Is that when you first started learning about it? [0:03:49] Jack: I was watching from the sidelines. I had invested in a few projects already, but hadn't figured out staking, hadn't figured out exactly how I would land in the NFT space at all. But that's also where I saw my chance to say if this can be a combination of especially NFT digital art, which I make my own art on my side. On the side. Seeing that people could take ownership of digital art and Monetize, it was pretty powerful. [0:04:15] Rudy: I was like, what kind of art do you make on the side? [0:04:18] Jack: Let's see. I produce music, I do photography, I make collage, I paint. [0:04:24] Rudy: Interesting. [0:04:25] Jack: Yeah. My collage projects involve old comic books. Usually not very good condition comic books. I cut them up and I can send you all a whole bunch of them after this call. [0:04:37] Rudy: That's awesome. And I guess it's something that you're, like, more passionate about and driven into. Were you always into tech at all? Like new age tech. [0:04:45] Jack: Yeah, I was a geography student and I studied GIS, which is geospatial data, software analytics, stuff like that. That's kind of my first dabbling in the tech space. I also enjoy the modern technologies for the community of people with my condition. So that was another big interest of mine, still is and will be. And there's a lot of exciting news to share on that front as well. But yeah, I would say technology is definitely a big interest, and with tech comes good design. I was an artist before, but I would say after I got injured, I doubled down because it's therapeutic, it's pleasant, it's a way to express yourself. [0:05:23] Rudy: Yeah. And it's definitely an amazing way to spend time with your mind. Some people hate it. Some people just hate being alone with their head, with their mind. And I'm like, it's the best part. I love being alone with my mind. It's where I get to actually talk to myself a little bit without so much noise around me. [0:05:38] Jack: Yeah, good to get into that flow state. [0:05:40] Rudy: So, yeah, the science world is definitely something you're familiar with and interested in. And I know we met at the DSAI Boston event, but I also have to learn how you got into DSAI and what you're doing at DSAI World. [0:05:52] Jack: Sure. DSAI World I got involved with in probably November of last year, I met Josh, the founder, and that was when my NFT project was in its infancy. It was just a concept. He kind of gave me some insight on what it would take to build this kind of project and then offered to post the launch of it on his platform, DCI World. Right. It took a while to reconnect with him after that winter, but I then began trials in Boston, where I was a participant in a study for medical device. Also was just exploring. Okay, I see that DSI is a thing first. Getting that through your head, you see. Okay, now there's all the possibilities beyond that. Right. I suppose what I was doing was a form of decentralized science. Not necessarily how other people are approaching it, but my own, which is cool. So as I was pulling all the pieces together for my NFT project, I saw that he was building the platform and the dashboard. So in tandem, we kind of agreed, okay, we're going to launch this NFT project together, but there's a whole lot of tasks on the platform ends that I could help with. [0:07:01] Jack: It's been r…

30 min