As it attempts to grab a piece of a booming autonomous vehicle space and bolster its expertise, blockchain start-up DAV Foundation has recruited several current and former Ethereum Foundation members to its team.

The Swiss-based non-profit has announced that current Ethereum Foundation members Dr. Greg Colvin and Nick Johnson have joined as advisors alongside former Foundation members Tung Chan and John Frazer. Together, the four represent a wealth of industry and blockchain knowledge that will bolster DAV’s development of its global network for autonomous vehicle communication, as well as its use of the Ethereum blockchain for transactions and smart contracts.

Dr. Colvin, from his position as a core developer of Ethereum, brings a great wealth of expertise as DAV’s technology advisor, particularly in relation to smart contracts. These will form the bedrock of DAV’s network, as they allow users to follow and verify transactions, be they delivery orders, automated drone charging exchanges or payments.

He is joined by Johnson, the creator and chief developer of the Ethereum Name Service and former senior software engineer at Google. As DAV’s blockchain advisor, he is responsible for building distributed and decentralised systems and solving problems related to robustness and scalability.

Noam Copel, founder and CEO of the DAV Foundation said:

The collective talent we have on board here just speaks for itself. But more than that it’s exhilarating to see that these professionals in the Ethereum space share our passion for the future of transportation. We now have the right people in place to take the DAV Network that much further. It’s so exciting to see what we can now achieve.

DAV’s general counsel Chan previously held the same role with the Ethereum Foundation, served as Securities Commissioner for the State of Hawaii for over eight years and has a background in aviation regulation. Meanwhile, DAV’s chief communications officer Frazer is the former External Relations lead for the Ethereum Foundation and ex-senior member of the Devcon3 team.

The DAV Foundation is developing a blockchain-based ecosystem to link autonomous vehicles with each other, service providers and consumers. The goal is to create a network on which all participants can discover, communicate and transact with one another, underpinned by smart contracts.

Alongside the Ethereum expertise on the DAV advisory board are executive members from SAP, UPS, Equinix, IBM, Cisco and two former NASA space astronauts.