If you've paid any attention to the world of finance over the past year or two, you've surely heard about the so-called 'cryptocurrency' Bitcoin, which is mined by (super)computers and can be used to make purchases both online and offline the same as cash, ie anonymously and without a financial institution acting as a middleman. In February 2014, the world's largest and most established Bitcoin exchange, the Tokyo-based Mt Gox, collapsed after an estimated $450 million worth of Bitcoins went missing.

So what does a speculative digital currency and a virtual heist in Japan have to do with Slovenia? After Mt Gox went bust, the world's new leading Bitcoin exchange became the Slovenian company Bitstamp, which was founded by Damijan Merlak and Nejc Kodrič back in 2011 in Kranj, some 20km north of Ljubljana. The pair and their now UK-based company recently made headlines around the world in March after receiving a $10 million investment from a US hedge fund.

If you're one of the growing number of technophiles who have already hopped on the Bitcoin bandwagon, there is at least one venue in Ljubljana that currently accepts them for payment: the restaurant Allegria on Nazorjeva Ulica.