The ‘Good-Bye Note’ of Ripple’s Lead Engineer, Nik Bougalis

Nik Bougalis, Ripple’s lead engineer, last week announced his exit from the firm.
After serving the firm for almost a decade, Bougalis finally announced his resignation.
He further clarifies that he is not joining any blockchain firm or project, nor doing NFTs and DeFi.

The Good-Bye Note of Ripple Lead Engineer

On October 22, 2022 Nik Bougalis, the cryptographer and Director of Engineering at Ripple shared the Twitter thread. In the thread, he started with “All good things…” as his decade-long journey at Ripple has finally ended in a few weeks.

“All good things…”
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.
🧵
— 𝙽 𝙸 𝙺 𝙱 (@nbougalis) October 21, 2022

Bougalis showed gratitude to have had the opportunity to work alongside and learn from the Founder at Ripple, Arthur Britto and the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Ripple, David Schwartz.

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

He also added about the XRP Ledger that its long-term health and success is not predicted on any one person. As he is confident everything will be just fine because of the passionate individuals.

And what of the #XRPL? Its long-term health and success isn’t predicated on any one person.
I’m confident that it will be just fine, thanks to talented and passionate individuals who contribute and participate, each in their own way.
— 𝙽 𝙸 𝙺 𝙱 (@nbougalis) October 21, 2022

Bougalis ended the tweet by saying that the decision of leaving Ripple was not easy for him , but is the “right one.” He moreover clarifies that he is not going to join any other blockchain firm or project or else do any NFTs or DeFi.

Leaving Ripple wasn’t an easy decision, but it is the right one for me.
To my fellow Ripplers: I wish you unbridled success.
🍻
As for what’s next? I’ll talk about it when it’s time, but I am NOT joining another blockchain project/company, nor am I doing NFTs or DeFi.
— 𝙽 𝙸 𝙺 𝙱 (@nbougalis) October 21, 2022

On the other hand, David Schwartz, CTO at Ripple, the next day posted in the twitter thread that he is not leaving the firm.

I’m sure you guys heard that @nbougalis is leaving @Ripple. This is always bittersweet. I’m sad that I won’t be working closely with Nik anymore. But I’m also glad he’s personally moving forward. 1/4
— 𝙳𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚍 𝚂𝚌𝚑𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚣 (@JoelKatz) October 22, 2022

He further claimed that he had an intense working schedule when he was working on the XRPL with Stefan Thomas, Arthur Britto, and Chris Larsen. Schwarz also noted that he will not be able to lead such a project again.

It must be noted that XRP Ledger or XRPL is a decentralized, public blockchain that is led by the global developer community.

More About Nik Bougalis

As per the personal blog page of Nik Bougalis, he is a cryptographer and a software engineer, who has a robust academic background and 20+ years of practical experience. He actively contributes to the xrp ledger by operating a validator, that is used to track and report on an individual’s performance and stability along with the information about the specifications of the system.

Furthermore, on October 18, 2022 Emi Yoshikawa, Ripple’s Vice President of corporate strategy and operations announced the beginning of a two-week countdown on XLS 20 Amendment v1.9.2. It would enable the native NFTs (non-fungible tokens) on XRP Ledger.