Ripple Labs’ director of engineering Nik Bougalis is reporting leaving his position at the company follow almost 10 years of work – the most recent departure of crypto’s veteran executives out of the sphere. 

Specifically, via a Twitter post on Oct. 22nd, Bougalis reportedly revealed 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.”

An interesting note is that the Ripple engineer disclosing that he will not be becoming a part of a blockchain initiative or company in his next move.

“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.

Bougalis reportedly possesses a significant background in software engineering and cryptography, and during his run at Ripple, he mainly deal with open-source code initiatives focusing on the payments XRP Ledger, alternatively referred to as XRPL.

One of Ripple’s crucial updates in recent times that Bougalis has kept an oversight on was the XLS-20 amendment, which takes care of the release of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) to XRPL. 

While several initial bugs during the initial phase that reportedly still needed fixing, the upgrade is reportedly geared towards an official roll-out in early November.

The cryptographer additionally shared his perspectives that Ripple will still be growing even with his permanent absence.

“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.”