Picture this: a physician, scalpel swapped for cryptographic keys, stitches together a digital immune system for money. Dr. Francesco Madonna—BitVault’s architect—isn’t just building a wallet; he’s engineering a fortress against humanity’s oldest parasites: greed, coercion, and human error.
When COVID’s chaos exposed traditional finance as a house of cards, Francesco saw Bitcoin’s blockchain not as a ledger, but as a lifeline. His epiphany? Sovereignty isn’t a luxury—it’s urgent care for your savings.
BitVault emerged in the shadows of a Swiss apartment, birthed from flowcharts. Here’s a tool that treats hackers like pathogens—quarantining keys, delaying attacks, and immunizing funds. 
His secret weapon? A community-powered antidote to centralized decay. Want to crash the system? Start by building a better vault. The revolution won’t be televised—it’ll be self-custodied.
Building on Bitcoin
- What’s the story behind your leap into bitcoin? Was there a pivotal life moment or mentor that ignited your passion?
My leap into bitcoin was born out of disillusionment with the traditional financial system. As a physician and entrepreneur, I saw firsthand how centralization breeds inefficiency, censorship, and fragility.
The pivotal moment came during the COVID era when government overreach and economic uncertainty collided. I found solace and structure in bitcoin’s elegant design and unbreakable logic.
- Bitcoin wallets and tools are everywhere—what void did you see in the market that BitvaultApp was born to fill?
I saw there was no tool to actually offset physical attacks and hacks in a banking-grade way.
- Walk us through Day 1 of Bitvault. Did you start coding in a coffee shop, or rally a team? What kept you awake at night?
Day 1 was me, alone, sketching multisig recovery flowcharts on paper in a dim apartment in Switzerland. I wasn’t coding—I was obsessing over edge cases. The idea felt heavy with responsibility. What kept me awake was the fear of creating something people would rely on.
- Bitcoiners obsess over trust. How did you engineer Bitvault to balance user-friendliness with military-grade security?
We designed BitVault so that trust is not required—even in recovery. Two keys move funds, but one is always offline or delay-locked. The convenience signer can be self-hosted or managed by BitVault. Verification steps and logs provide transparency. The challenge was abstracting this complexity into a UI that even non-technical users can understand.
- Share a hurdle that almost broke the project—a technical meltdown, regulatory curveball, or personal doubt. How’d you pivot?
I was about to scrap the project if it could have only solved physical attacks and not hacks, for reasons of market opportunity. Well, luckily I immediately found out it solves hacks as well.
- Founders often trade sleep, stability, or sanity. What’s one personal sacrifice that motivates you?
My wife Dang is the person who keeps me balanced.
- How does co-hosting StoreOfBitcoin Podcast influence Bitvault’s roadmap? Any user feedback that went viral?
Hosting the podcast keeps me plugged into the front lines of bitcoin discourse. We hosted a technical podcast a few months ago and a listener once asked if BitVault could send a signal before a delayed transaction triggers.
That single comment sparked our secret notification layer. Real users shape this product more than we do.
- From the podcast’s frontlines—what’s the most underrated trend in bitcoin that excites you?
Local custody co-ops. People forming community multisigs to take back control without relying on platforms. It’s grassroots, it’s powerful, and BitVault’s tech is perfectly aligned to support it.
- How do you separate “Francesco the Bitcoin evangelist” from “Francesco the CEO”? Or do you?
They’re the same person wearing different hats. The evangelist fights for sovereignty; the CEO makes it accessible, usable, and fundable. I balance mission with execution, knowing that idealism alone can’t scale—but neither can profit without purpose.
What’s Next?
- What’s your non-negotiable daily habit—meditation, coding sprints, or something quirky—that keeps you sharp?
Meditation in the morning is a life hack.
- If you could partner with one entity (gov, corp, or influencer) to scale bitcoin adoption, who would it be and why?
I’d partner with Strike to roll out BitVault as their non-custodial savings layer. They’ve built bridges to fiat rails—we’d build the vault at the end of the bridge. Together, we’d bring bitcoin security to the masses.
- How can the global bitcoin community support Bitvault’s mission?
Use the beta. Break it. Give us hell. Then tell others. The community’s greatest gift is its honesty and its reach. If you believe people deserve better custody tools, help us build them—loudly, publicly, unapologetically.
