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Ripple’s Director of Engineering Leaves Firm as XRP Turns 10
Nik Bougalis says he’s not joining another blockchain or Web3 company.
By Sam Reynolds
Updated May 9, 2023, 4:00 a.m. Published Oct 24, 2022, 7:36 a.m.
Ripple’s chief engineer announced over the weekend that he is leaving the company to chart new horizons, which he chose not to reveal.
- “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,” Bougalis tweeted.
- At Ripple, Bougalis oversaw a series of developments to the ledger’s code base including the introduction of non-fungible tokens (NFT), which is scheduled to go live in November.
- Bougalis’ departure comes as Ripple begins testing an XRP ledger sidechain that’s compatible with Ethereum-based smart contracts. This would allow developers familiar with the much larger Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) software to deploy their code onto Ripple.
- Although unrelated to Bougalis’ position at Ripple, the company continues its two-year fight with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on whether XRP is considered a security.
- Bougalis has not indicated where he will be heading next.
- XRP is currently trading at 45 cents, down 0.38% on-day.
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