Ripple’s Lead Engineer Is Leaving But Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Worry

In an unexpected tweet, Ripple’s Director of Engineering Nik Bougalis is leaving Ripple after being with the company for 10 years.

Bougalis took to Twitter and was quoted saying “my decade-long journey at Ripple has been a fantastic (if exhausting and all-consuming) one. I got to work on a project that I love, towards a goal I believe in. But that journey will be coming to an end in a few weeks.”

Prior to Bougalis’ announcement Ripple has been going on a hiring campaign in order to find the brightest and most innovative engineers that the entire world has to offer.

The XRP community shouldn’t be fazed by Bougalis’ exit because there are dozens of more engineers who are filled with passion and ideas for Ripple and looking to gain Bougalis’ position.

I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work alongside and learn from @JoelKatz, Arthur Britto, my teammates on the C++ team (past and present) and so many others at Ripple.

The camaraderie and esprit de corps of the C++ team is what I’ll miss the most.

— 𝙽 𝙸 𝙺 𝙱 (@nbougalis) October 21, 2022

A key XRP Ledger developer is planning to depart from Ripple after nearly a 10-year stint, though where he's going next is still a mystery for now. https://t.co/MAfkExbxd7

— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) October 24, 2022

CoinTelegraph had these details to add:

Ripple Labs’ director of engineering Nik Bougalis is exiting the firm after nearly 10 years, becoming the latest of crypto’s long-time serving executives to depart from the space.

In an Oct. 22 tweet, Bougalis noted that: “my decade-long journey at Ripplehas been a fantastic (if exhausting and all-consuming) one. I got to work on a project that I love, towards a goal I believe in. But that journey will be coming to an end in a few weeks.”

Bougalis has a lengthy background in software engineering and cryptography, and while at Ripple, he primarily worked on open-source code projects for the payments XRP Ledger, also known as XRPL.

One of Ripple’s key recent developments that Bougalis has overseen is the XLS-20 amendment which will see the introduction of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) to XRPL. While there were a few initial bugs that reportedly needed ironing out, the upgrade is reportedly set to go through in early November.

ICYMI SVP of Engineering @devrajvaradhan spoke with StackOverflow to discuss lessons learned throughout his career, why he joined the crypto industry and what we're building @Ripple.

If you're interested in using crypto to tackle real-world problems, we're hiring! https://t.co/vlEN5wX2re

— Ripple (@Ripple) October 14, 2022

Want to Work At Ripple? They Are Hiring Over 300 Employees! https://t.co/ulp4BKKhbq via @ProCoinNews

— 432Hz XRP (@432XRP) October 19, 2022

After being at the same job for 10 years, things can sometimes become very routine and the well of passion dries up.

More than likely Bouglis’ replacement will be someone with ambition and passion that will allow Ripple’s core engineering teams to soar to new heights like never before.

Join the conversation!

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.