Blockstream, a blockchain technology provider, has announced the appointment of Ben Teitelbaum to its executive team.

Starting this month, Teitelbaum is joining Blockstream as new Vice President of Engineering, the release said. He will be based in Blockstream's offices in the Bay Area.

Before joining Blockstream, Teitelbaum was CTO and VP of Engineering at Open Garden, leading the team that created the offline messaging app FireChat. He has held leadership positions at three other peer-to-peer companies, including BitTorrent, Dyyno, and Plicto, which he co-founded. Plicto's novel background transport protocol transformed the way that BitTorrent, Apple, and other companies deliver large downloads.

"Ben's professional background, experience leading engineering teams, and his passion for technology, coupled with his commitment to building products and platforms that solve real world problems, are an exceptional fit for Blockstream," said Blockstream's CEO, Dr. Adam Back. "We're very fortunate to have him join the company to help our growing engineering team excel at delivering a number of exciting and industry leading projects during 2017."

In October 2016, Dr. Adam Back took up the responsibility of the company’s CEO, replacing outgoing CEO Austin Hill who opted out of the board to pursue other opportunities.

Earlier in his career, Teitelbaum led advanced networking programs for Internet2, a consortium of research universities. These included two voice-over-IP peering fabrics and an interdomain IP differentiated services testbed. He contributed to the engineering of the Abilene backbone network and led the team that won the SuperComputing 2000 Network Challenge Award for "Most Captivating and Best-Tuned Demonstration."

"Over the past 15 years, I had the privilege of working closely with Ben, most recently at Open Garden," said Stanislav Shalunov, Founder of Open Garden. "Ben is a rare technologist: an expert in his own specialty, he also brings engineers together and leads them with skill and grace, earning their trust and motivating the team to deliver results. I am very happy for Ben as he is starting a new journey with Blockstream."

Founded in late 2014, Blockstream has raised $76 million in two rounds of funding from leading investors in Asia, Europe and North America, including AME Cloud Ventures, AXA Strategic Ventures, Blockchain Capital, Digital Currency Group, Digital Garage, Future\Perfect Ventures, Horizons Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Khosla Ventures, Mosaic Ventures, Real Ventures, Reid Hoffman, and Seven Seas Venture Partners.

The company announced its first production sidechain “Liquid” in October 2015, in collaboration with an initial set of launch partners including Bitfinex, BTCC, Kraken, Unocoin, and Xapo. Last year, it acquired GreenAddress, a leading bitcoin wallet software provider, in a move to accelerate sidechains development.