Elizabeth Stark

Elizabeth Stark is CEO and co-founder of Lightning Labs and a previous Proof of Talk speaker. Her professional work concerns infrastructure for payments over Bitcoin and the Lightning Network. Lightning Labs develops software and services used by developers and businesses building on that network. Stark's public discussions focus on the practical question of how digital value can move through internet applications with interfaces that people can use.

In a 2021 SALT interview, Stark described Lightning as a transaction layer operating over the Bitcoin blockchain. She discussed payments for online creators, games and cross-border transfers as examples of applications developers could build. Her emphasis was on Bitcoin as a monetary network, alongside its role as an asset. She also argued that open infrastructure allowed entrepreneurs to build services without seeking permission from a central platform. These were her views on the network's potential, rather than claims that every proposed use case had achieved adoption.

An earlier Unchained interview in February 2020 examined Lightning Loop, a product intended to help users manage the liquidity needed to send and receive payments. That discussion connected technical infrastructure to the needs of businesses using the network. It also illustrated the distinction between developing tools for other companies and providing the applications that end users see. Usability, channel capacity and developer feedback form part of the operational work behind a payment experience.

Lightning Labs' June 2025 Taproot Assets release announcement continued to identify Stark as CEO. The release described support for assets, including stablecoins, on Bitcoin and transfers through Lightning, along with improvements to asset flows and liquidity routing. Those features were presented as the work of the company and its developer community. Stark's profile brings these technical developments into a broader discussion about internet-native payments: how software, liquidity and accessible interfaces fit together when businesses build new ways to send and receive value.