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Ripple Lead Engineer Leaves After 10 Years at the Firm – What’s Going On?

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Ruholamin Haqshanas

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Ruholamin Haqshanas

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Ruholamin Haqshanas is a contributing crypto writer for CryptoNews. He is a crypto and finance journalist with over four years of experience. Ruholamin has been featured in several high-profile crypto...

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Last updated:

June 25, 2023

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Software engineer and cryptographer Nik Bougalis has announced that he is leaving Ripple after nearly 10 years at the firm.

Joined a growing list of crypto leaders who are leaving their executive roles in the industry amid the ongoing crypto crash, Bougalis said in a Saturday tweet that his role as Ripple’s chief engineer will come to an end in a “few weeks.”

“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,” he tweeted.

At Ripple, Bougalis mainly worked on open-source code projects for the payments XRP Ledger, also known as XRPL. He has also overseen a series of major developments to the ledger’s code base including the introduction of NFTs, which is scheduled to go live in November.

One of the key recent developments that Bougalis has led is the XLS-20 amendment which will see the addition of NFTs to XRPL. The upgrade is allegedly primed to go through in early November despite some initial bugs that have been addressed.

Meanwhile, he noted that his departure won’t impact Ripple’s growth. “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,” he said.

Bougalis also shared that he doesn’t plan to work with another crypto project in the future. “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,” he said.

3,000 XRP Holders will be Involved in Ripple Lawsuit

Over 3,000 XRP holders will be involved in the lawsuit between the crypto company and the SEC. Called affidavits, the notarized testimonies had been submitted by Ripple.

John Deaton, crypto lawyer and founder of legal and regulatory digital asset news company CryptoLaw, has recently said this could make a huge difference in the case since there would be a massive exhibit with hundreds of thousands of pages.

“Exhibit 167 is broken into 26 parts. Although sealed, it has been filed as ECF 655-1-26. When you have a massive exhibit w/hundreds thousands of pages, the system can’t handle all as one exhibit and must be broken up. Looks like 3K XRP Holder Affidavits were submitted by Ripple,” he said in a Saturday tweet.