Guillem Ferrer, a key figure at DragonStake, shared his journey into the blockchain space and the mission of his company, recognized as Spain's first, and possibly only, proof-of-stake validation firm. Guillem's personal discovery of blockchain began in 2018. Initially, he harbored a critical view of Bitcoin, influenced by media narratives labeling it a scam. However, further research led him to a profound shift in perception, realizing "the television wasn't telling the truth, completely the truth" and fully grasping the key concepts. This led him to establish "Crypto Boy" in 2020, where he created accessible Spanish content on blockchain and DeFi for newcomers, cultivating a community of over 100,000 users. He attributes this rapid growth to "a lot of hustle, hard work," including working "Monday to Monday, a lot of hours," driven by his deep conviction: "I strongly believe in blockchain and in cryptocurrencies and in their future." Guillem met Freddie, DragonStake's founder, at a Polkadot event in 2021. Freddie's extensive background in network operations, predating the internet, led him to recognize blockchain as "the new improvement in networks." This vision forms the bedrock of DragonStake's mission. Guillem articulates their contribution: "one way to contribute to this ecosystem is creating the blocks, because as we know, without blocks, there's nothing." DragonStake currently validates eight networks, including Avalanche, Polkadot, Kusama, Cosmos, Ebmos, Kava, Forta, and SSUV, with plans to support native Ethereum staking soon. A core value for DragonStake is non-custodial staking. Guillem highlights the challenge of Ethereum's 32 ETH staking requirement, which excludes many retail users. To address this, DragonStake is actively collaborating with the SSUV Network to develop tools for self-custodial Ethereum staking without requiring such a large amount. He firmly states, "We strongly believe and we are building everything in a self-custodial way and improving that." His perspective is that "every staking should be self custodian. So if there's more options than just one, better for everyone. Decentralization." Addressing the prevalent issue of tribalism in Web3, Guillem asserts that it stems "from outside, not from inside" the ecosystem. He observes a collaborative spirit among internal players, noting, "we don't see each other as competitors" but rather seek to "create good synergies." DragonStake embodies this, prioritizing decentralization and choice over competition: "I don't care if it's Rocket Pool, if it's SCV, it's Dragon's Take, it's 4 Ball, Citizen, we don't really care. We believe in decentralization and we need more options than just one." To foster cooperation, Guillem emphasizes education, thinking "as a group, not as individuals," and critically, "making all easier," citing the current difficulties in interoperability and user-friendliness. Operating a validator business, even with an eight-person team, presents significant challenges, particularly during a bear market. For new validators, Guillem advises starting in testnets and contributing "for free" to build trust and gain grants, much like DragonStake did with Cosmos's "Game of Stakes" hackathon. He stresses the demanding nature of validation, likening each network to "a baby" requiring "24-7 control" to prevent errors and penalties. Beyond initial grants, "you need to grow a community so people could know your validator and vote and delegate their tokens with you so you could get a higher revenue and then invest in your company." Selecting viable networks is another major hurdle, as many testnet projects "didn't arrive to the mainnet or they just died." Guillem views this as inherent to the startup nature of blockchain companies: "You need to try... and if they don't work you need to pivot." DragonStake's criteria for network selection, primarily driven by Freddie, include fostering interoperability (evident in their support for Polkadot and Cosmos), enabling decentralized applications and self-custodial staking, and offering genuinely new features rather than being "a copy of a copy." Crucially, they refuse to work with networks that contradict their values, explicitly stating, "We are not gonna work with VCT. We are not gonna work with Binance Smart Chain because it's really centralized, so it's not inside our values." Guillem expresses frustration over the market's current disconnect from fundamentals, where "not always the fundamentals won," and "most of people is here for the money." Despite this, he hopes regulation will eventually "help to just maintain the good projects and get away with the bad ones." Among DragonStake's achievements, Guillem is particularly proud of their consistent presence "from the beginning" across all networks they validate, having started in their testnets and genesis blocks, and even preventing a "civil attack" on the Cosmos testnet. The company has also developed valuable tools, including PolkaStats.io, a blockchain explorer for Polkadot, and the more recent SSUBscan.io, a validator-focused block explorer for the SSUV Network, both created by their senior developer, Mario Pino. Personally, Guillem is motivated by a desire to constantly improve himself and his unwavering belief in blockchain technology. He finds inspiration in unexpected places, identifying with Will Smith, playfully pointing out that his own name, Guillem Ferrer, is the Catalan equivalent of William Smith.