Chances are if you’re in the Italian Bitcoin community, or perhaps even those outside of it, you’ve heard of the most popular Italian students club: Politecnico of Turin’s BitPolito. Or maybe you’ve seen their logo, a pixelated blue cow, somewhere at a Bitcoin conference.
BitPolito was founded in 2018 by three students of the Politecnico di Torino: Giorgio Rasetto, Salvatore Scorsone, and Gabriele Vernetti. Inspired by their shared passion for the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, the three students united to bring a Italy’s first Bitcoin focused student’s club to life. Their objective: to bridge the gap between the academic world and the Bitcoin industry, helping members develop skills and create value for Bitcoin, by creating an educational environment focused on R&D in computer science and mathematics, holding classes for students, and organizing events in Turin and around Italy.
No price noise, just educational signal.
According to the latest annual report (2025/2026), BitPolito has more 55 active members. Historically, around 220 members have been active in the student’s organization, and there are now more than 30 former students actually working in the Bitcoin industry. For example, Gabriele Vernetti, one of the founders — known in cyberspace as GitGab19 —, is now one of the main maintainers of the Stratum V2 project.
The association is always present to the biggest Bitcoin events around the world. Other than talks at several Bitcoin++ events, in 2024/2025 the BitPolito guys could be found at the Plan B Forum in Lugano, BTC Prague, Baltic Honeybadger, and BTCHEL, and the Barcelona Cypher Conference.
In Italy, their impact can be also felt outside of the Politecnico. They organize events all over Italy — more than 70 according to the latest report —, they take part in the Italian-only conferences, such as the BitCare Forum in Breascia, and provide education to anyone willing to learn. With their “Bitcoin al Liceo” program, BitPolito is bringing Bitcoin and the Cypherpunk culture to high school students around Turin, while “BitGeneration” brings together the best educators in the Italian ecosystem to provide everyone with a full understanding of Bitcoin directly at the Politecnico.
BitPolito has also been invited to participate in an event organized by the Camera dei Deputati — one of the Italian parliamentary chambers — to present their view on what Bitcoin is and why it is important for a better future.
Franscesco Pelle has been BitPolito’s president since July 2024. After two years successfully leading the club, he is now stepping down, leaving the role to a member of the next generation. Francesco recently completed his academic journey in Management Engineering, and is graduating from the Politecnico. While his passion for Bitcoin and the BitPolito is as strong as ever, he is ready to move forward to his new chapter of life: “My main interests are entrepreneurship and product management. I currently work as a product manager at a startup, and I want to continue developing my skills in this field”, he says.
“There is no single moment that I would describe as the most important one. Serving as president of BitPolito has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my journey so far. It was both a privilege and a responsibility to be part of a group of people united by values that I consider fundamental, starting with freedom and the other principles at the heart of Bitcoin.”
Giorgio Rasetto, one of the founders, and the rest of BitPolito’s OGs personally chose Francesco as the new president in 2024, when Giorgio himself completed his academic journey and decided to focus on his Bitcoin career. “They selected the person they believe is best suited to ensure continuity in the team’s activities, responsibilities, and leadership,” Francesco says, pointing out that he “had also demonstrated a strong commitment to BitPolito and its mission.” This seems to have reassured the founders they were entrusting someone who genuinely cared about what they were building.
Being the first president outside of the circle of the original founders, continuity has been one of the most important focuses of Francesco’s term. How do you make sure that the ethos, the values, and the ideas that led to BitPolito will remain intact, even after the founders are gone? “My main goal was to ensure BitPolito’s continuity and allow the work built over the previous years to continue. Today, the team includes highly motivated people who genuinely care about the project.”
One of the best ways to ensure continuity is through education. New members are not always operational until they have absorbed what Bitcoin is really about. Moreover, the structural organization has been made so that new members can easily integrate with the ongoing activities and the association in general.
“The president is responsible for providing leadership and maintaining an overall view of the team’s activities. The president does not hold exclusive decision-making power: they are part of a board where decisions and responsibilities are shared with the heads of the team’s internal divisions.”
The role of the presidency in BitPolito is a high-profile one. Other than giving a common direction to the organization and making sure that all the important initiative are completed on time, the president is responsible for managing institutional relationships with companies, projects, and, most importantly, with the Politecnico itself. During his term, Francesco was able to secure “significantly more financial support from Politecnico di Torino than in the past,” — something he is proud of — so that the members could continue attending events and travelling across Europe, promote both BitPolito and the Politecnico, and strengthen the relationships they had built over the years.
Francesco is proud of everything he has done during his presidency. He is proud of how BitPolito has impacted the Italian Bitcoin scene and how their events have allowed many people to get a closer look to Bitcoin and get fascinated by the ideas behind it. “Discovering Bitcoin can have a profound impact on someone’s life, and I believe that BitPolito has helped create that change for many people in Italy over time,” he says. Most importantly, though, he is proud of having been able to remain true to himself while “creating an environment where people could feel at home, take an active role, and freely bring forward their own initiatives.”
“I do not have any real regrets. There are certainly things I would have liked to do better or spend more time on, but they do not change how I feel about the overall experience. I am satisfied with what I did, and I am confident that the team will continue in the best possible way under its new leadership.”
Some things remain undone, like creating a more clearly defined and robust structure for the team’s internal processes and activities. Francesco is not worried, though. He is sure that the new president and the team will be able to fill this gap and continue on the same track of the people before them.
The new president has already been chosen. Luca Visconti, former Project Manager for the AI team, will take the presidency soon. The handover has already started and Francesco is delighted about his successor.
“I was impressed by how active he was and by the dedication with which he approached the responsibilities of the role”
According to Francesco, after years of expanding the network outside of the borders of Turin, the new president will have to focus the association back to where it all began. Engaging students, spread Bitcoin awareness among them, and grow the team.
Bitcoin++ Insider Edition would like to thank BitPolito president Francesco Pelle for his availability and wishes him a bright future for his Bitcoin career. We also would like to congratulate Luca Visconti for his new role and wish him a term full of success and satisfaction.