Elizabeth Stark is the co-founder and CEO of Lightning Labs, the company behind the Lightning Network, which is a layer-2 solution enabling fast and cheap Bitcoin transactions. She is also a fellow at Coin Center, a leading digital currency policy organization, and an advisor at Chia, a company building a new blockchain protocol based on proof of space and time.

Elizabeth has been involved in the Bitcoin and crypto space since 2011 as an educator, researcher, advocate, and entrepreneur. She taught one of the first courses on cryptocurrencies at Stanford and Yale and co-founded the Stanford Bitcoin Group. She also helped launch StartBitcoin.org, a resource for entrepreneurs in emerging markets to learn about Bitcoin.

Elizabeth is passionate about scaling blockchains for the masses and creating a programmable financial layer for the Internet, for which she has already raised over $80 million from investors such as Valor Equity Partners, Baillie Gifford, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, Silvergate CEO Alan Lane, and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.