How do you build the world's largest drone imagery network from scratch? Graham Anderson, Operations Manager at Spexi Geospatial, reveals the untold story of LayerDrone's journey from 230 test missions in a single Canadian town to covering over 200 municipalities across North America. Discover how consumer drones, blockchain incentives, and a community of pioneering pilots transformed a vision into reality—starting with test flights off a garage’s roof in Vernon, BC.

• How the network started with 230 missions in Cochrane, Alberta with color-coded Google Maps
• Scaling from 4 pilots to 5,000+ across North America in 18 months
• Why standardization was the key to rapid growth

• (00:00) - The History of the World's First Autonomous Drone Network
• (00:53) - Meet Graham: Ops Manager for the World's Largest Drone Network
• (02:36) - Spexi seeds LayerDrone when Bill wants bite-sized pieces of the earth mapped
• (04:46) - The Trusted Alpha and First Flights on the Network
• (08:29) - Today's flights vs. the trusted alpha
• (09:10) - The Known User Alpha
• (15:55) - The network's private beta
• (19:31) - The network's public beta
• (21:03) - The network's testnet
• (22:02) - Launching LayerDrone in 2025
• (26:15) - The big unlock for drones: standardization
• (27:21) - How pilots built the network
• (29:04) - Innovation or Idiotic?

Hosted by Bryce Bladon | Edited by AJ Fillari | Sponsored by Spexi.com & LayerDrone.org

Alec Wilson, COO of Spexi, explains how LayerDrone became the world’s largest standardized drone imagery network, and why Spexi made the decision to spin LayerDrone out into a public-good, crypto-economic protocol. He goes on to share:

• his journey from helicopter pilot to building one of the most ambitious aerial data networks in the world,
• the regulatory evolution of drones in Canadian airspace,
• how LayerDrone standardizes imagery from thousands of pilots, and
• why spatial AI, world models, and next-gen robotics companies are hungry for ultra-high-resolution, frequently updated aerial data.

Discussed

• How to go from flying helicopters to co-founding a drone training company that certified 10,000+ pilots
• The founding vision behind LayerDrone as an open-source, crypto-economic protocol for standardized drone imagery
• Why Spexi spun out LayerDrone and their role as the founding core contributor
• How the network balances pilot agency with safety requirements and regulatory compliance
• The relationship between Spexi (demand) and LayerDrone (supply)

Timecodes

• (00:00) - LayerDrone: the World’s Largest Standardized Drone
• (00:20) - Alec Wilson: Helicopter Pilot to Drone COO
• (01:51) - Alec co-founds Coastal Drone
• (04:17) - LayerDrone's founding vision
• (06:37) - Spexi's relationship with LayerDrone
• (07:47) - LayerDrone standardizes and coordinates thousands of drones
• (09:57) - Why take the risk of creating LayerDrone?
• (16:32) - Innovation or Idiotic?

Hosted by Bryce Bladon | Edited by AJ Fillari | Sponsored by Spexi.com & LayerDrone.org

Bryce welcomes Mapster (Sony), LayerDrone's top community contributor and the DePIN ambassador for drones and spatial data. As someone uniquely positioned between the crypto and drone communities, Mapster shares his decade-long journey from recreational drone pilot to DePIN enthusiast, explaining how his passion for hardware engineering led him to discover the convergence of blockchain technology and physical infrastructure.

Discussed:

• What DePIN really means for drone pilots (and why understanding DePIN isn't necessarily required to benefit from it)
• How Spexi is the perfect way to start flying drones
• Building a DePIN-mobile with a Tesla, Hivemapper, DIMO, and GEODNET devices

• (00:00) - Today: Becoming a DePIN and Drone Ambassador
• (01:04) - Mapster, Drones, and DePIN
• (05:54) - Why we keep discussing DePIN
• (08:52) - ...but why DePIN?
• (13:39) - How to join the network
• (14:51) - Innovation or Idiotic?
• (18:14) - The Bryce is Wrong!?

Hosted by Bryce Bladon | Edited by AJ Fillari | Sponsored by Spexi.com & LayerDrone.org