Former Ripple CTO David Schwartz has stated that only one person—former colleague Nik Bougalis—could persuade him to return to full-time software engineering. Schwartz, who transitioned to CTO Emeritus on January 1, 2026, after over a decade at Ripple, made the remark on X, emphasizing that neither financial incentives nor project scale would change his mind. He directly named Bougalis as the sole exception.
Bougalis, who was Ripple’s eighth employee, spent nearly ten years architecting the XRP Ledger core infrastructure and holds three Ripple patents in advanced cryptography. After leaving Ripple in 2022, he later became Chief Technology Officer at the Algorand Foundation in late 2025. Schwartz’s comments highlighted the profound professional respect between the two engineers, noting that working with Bougalis again is the only scenario that could end his retirement.
Schwartz remains involved with Ripple in a limited capacity, contributing to initiatives like the XRPL 3.2.0 release, but he made it clear that a full-time coding comeback is off the table unless Bougalis is part of the team. The statement offers a rare glimpse into the partnership that helped shape the XRP Ledger.
