2 days ago John Laurenson Business reporter, Lugano, Switzerland

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While you can of course still pay for everything in Swiss francs, some 350 shops and restaurants now also accept bitcoin. The local authority has even started taking payments in crypto currency for municipal services. You can, for example, pay for pre-school childcare in bitcoin.

I get talking to the McDonald's customer, Nicolas, who comes from France. He is what you might call a bitcoin true believer.

"What's great about paying in bitcoin is the feeling of freedom it gives you," he says. "You are no longer dependant on a financial system with its middlemen and its costs."

Nicolas says he's discovered bitcoin cards in Switzerland. These are prepaid gift cards. You buy a certain sum in Swiss francs but download it in bitcoin onto a digital wallet on your phone.

I walk through the centre of Lugano, down a high street where just about all the shops sell luxury stuff. Jewellery or expensive clothes mainly.

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