Elizabeth Stark

Elizabeth Stark was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She received a bachelor of arts in international relations from Brown UniversityBrown UniversityBrown University is a private nonprofit research university in Providence, Rhode Island, and a member of the Ivy League. Chartered by Rhode Island's colonial legislature in 1764, it is known for its undergraduate Open Curriculum, which has no common required core. Christina H. Paxson, president since July 2012, announced on August 3, 2026, that the 2026–27 academic year would be her last in office. As of October 1, 2026, the search for Brown's 20th president remained underway.Open the full entry and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.⁠[1]

At Harvard she founded the Harvard Free Culture group, served on the board of Students for Free Culture and worked as a researcher for the Berkman Center for Internet and Society.⁠[1]

Stark has been a fellow at the Yale Information Society Project, a lecturer in computer science at Yale University, an adjunct associate professor at NYU and an entrepreneur-in-residence at Stanford StartX.⁠[1]

She has taught at Stanford and Yale, where her students explored “peer-to-peer technology, privacy, open source software, and memes.”⁠[2]

In 2014 Stark founded StartBitcoin.org, which she described as “a group of entrepreneurs promoting the future of digital currencies & decentralized tech.” In 2015 she became a fellow at Coin CenterCoin CenterCoin Center is a nonprofit cryptocurrency policy research and advocacy organization founded in 2014 and based in Washington, D.C. Co-founded by Jerry Brito and Robin Weisman, it works on digital assets, financial privacy and software developers’ rights through research, policy education, regulatory comments and litigation.Open the full entry.⁠[1]

In 2016 Stark co-founded Lightning Labs and became its CEO. The company develops software for the Lightning Network, a layer-two payment network for Bitcoin; its other co-founder, Olaoluwa Osuntokun, serves as CTO.⁠[1][3][4]

On March 15, 2018, Lightning Labs released lnd 0.4-beta, the first beta of its Lightning implementation, and announced a $2.5 million seed round from investors including Charlie LeeCharlie LeeCharlie Lee is a software engineer, the creator of Litecoin, and the head of the Litecoin Foundation. While working at Google, he designed and fairly launched Litecoin in 2011; he later joined Coinbase and has continued to help coordinate Litecoin protocol upgrades such as SegWit and MWEB.Open the full entry, Jack Dorsey, David SacksDavid SacksDavid Sacks is the founder and a Partner of Craft Ventures, and the White House Special Advisor for AI and Crypto.Open the full entry, Vlad TenevVlad TenevVlad Tenev is an entrepreneur and the co-founder, chairman, chief executive officer, and president of Robinhood, as well as the co-founder and executive chairman of Harmonic, an artificial intelligence company focused on mathematical reasoning. He has a background in mathematics, worked early on in trading technology ventures, and later built a financial services platform for individual investors with Baiju Bhatt.Open the full entry and Digital Currency GroupDigital Currency GroupDigital Currency Group (DCG) is a crypto asset investment and holding company headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, founded by Barry Silbert in 2015. It invests in blockchain startups with permanent capital and owns subsidiaries including the digital asset manager Grayscale. In 2022, its crypto lender Genesis suffered losses after major client Three Arrows Capital defaulted and filed for bankruptcy the following year, leaving DCG and Silbert facing a lawsuit by the New York Attorney General, an SEC penalty, and multiple civil suits.Open the full entry.⁠[5]

Stark said at the time: “Lightning is not just about scalability, it's also an app development platform.” She also cautioned: “Users shouldn't be putting more money on Lightning right now than they are willing to lose.”⁠[5]

On July 15, 2018, Andreessen HorowitzAndreessen HorowitzAndreessen Horowitz (a16z) is a venture capital firm founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. It invests from the seed stage through the growth stage and provides operational support to its portfolio companies.Open the full entry released the video “An Intro to Crypto: Decentralization, the Big Picture” (about 40 minutes), a panel first held in April 2018 at an Intro to Crypto event hosted by Andreessen Horowitz and #Angels. Stark spoke with Chris DixonChris DixonChris Dixon is a programmer, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist, and the founder and managing partner of a16z crypto. He co-founded SiteAdvisor and Hunch, helped create Founder Collective, and later joined Andreessen Horowitz, investing in technology companies such as Coinbase. He is also the author of Read Write Own and has long written about blockchains, network ownership, the open internet, and the combination of AI and crypto.Open the full entry, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz and head of a16z crypto, in a conversation moderated by Jessica Verrilli, a founding partner of #Angels. The page introduced Stark as CEO and co-founder of Lightning Labs.⁠[6][7]

The panel took up the question “Why does decentralization matter?”, covering topics from the history of the internet to the culture of today’s crypto communities.⁠[6]

On July 16, 2018, audio of the same panel was released as the a16z Podcast episode “a16z Podcast: Decentralization and Crypto, the Big Picture,” which explored the reasons for decentralization and how it could work. The episode was uploaded to the a16z YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry channel on January 1, 2019, as “a16z Podcast | Decentralization and Crypto, the Big Picture.”⁠[8][9]

On February 5, 2020, Lightning Labs announced a $10 million Series A led by Craft Ventures, whose managing director Brian Murray joined the board, with participation from Slow Ventures, Ribbit CapitalRibbit CapitalRibbit Capital is a venture-capital firm founded in 2012 by Meyer “Micky” Malka and headquartered in Palo Alto, California. It began with financial-technology investing and has expanded into AI, commerce and related infrastructure. Its investments include Coinbase, Robinhood and Nubank.Open the full entry, Avichal Garg of Electric CapitalElectric CapitalElectric Capital has been investing since 2018, focusing on technologies such as artificial intelligence, cryptography, and distributed systems. Its website lists pre-seed through Series A as its focus investment stages and describes the engineering, product, and operating support it offers founding teams.Open the full entry and others. The funding supported Lightning Loop, its first paid service, which helps merchants and exchanges manage payment-channel liquidity.⁠[10]

Stark likened Loop In to “kind of like a prepaid debit card for a lightning account” and said the company would become an “infrastructure provider” to other startups.⁠[10]

On April 5, 2022, Lightning Labs announced a $70 million Series B led by Valor Equity Partners with Baillie Gifford, and at the same time unveiled Taro (Taproot Asset Representation Overlay), an open-source, Taproot-based protocol for issuing and moving assets such as stablecoins on BitcoinBitcoinBitcoin (common symbol BTC) is an open peer-to-peer electronic cash protocol, network, and native digital asset. Full nodes independently verify transactions and blocks according to the consensus rules; transactions are recorded as UTXOs, and blocks are organized into a public ledger through proof of work. Bitcoin is not issued or managed by any single institution, but using, holding in custody, and trading it still involve key, privacy, market, and legal risks.Open the full entry and the Lightning Network.⁠[11]

Stark said at the time: “The goal of the announcement was to focus on the technology [Taro], raising money is solely the means, not the end.”⁠[11]

Lightning Labs: Official website: https://lightning.engineering/ (opens in a new window).⁠[3]

X: Public account: https://x.com/starkness (opens in a new window).⁠[4]