Elizabeth Stark is the co-founder and CEO of Lightning Labs, the primary company building the Lightning Network — Bitcoin’s leading Layer 2 scaling solution.
Lightning Labs
Stark co-founded Lightning Labs in 2016 with Thaddeus Dryja (who co-authored the original Lightning Network whitepaper) and Olaoluwa Osuntokun (roasbeef). The company builds lnd, the most widely used Lightning Network implementation, as well as supporting infrastructure for Lightning payments.
The Lightning Network enables near-instant, low-cost Bitcoin transactions by creating payment channels between users that settle to the Bitcoin blockchain. This allows Bitcoin to scale to millions of transactions per second without compromising the base layer’s security or decentralization.
Taproot Assets
In 2023, Lightning Labs launched Taproot Assets (formerly Taro), a protocol built on Bitcoin and Lightning that enables the issuance of stablecoins and other assets on the Bitcoin network. This positioned the Lightning Network as not just a payments scaling solution but a platform for a broader range of financial assets.
Background
Before founding Lightning Labs, Stark was a fellow at the Coin Center think tank and taught at Stanford and Yale on topics including internet governance, peer-to-peer technology, and decentralization. She has a JD from Harvard Law School.
Advocacy
Stark is one of the most visible advocates for Bitcoin scaling and Lightning Network adoption. She has spoken at major conferences worldwide and has been instrumental in making the Lightning Network accessible to developers and businesses.