ONE of Britain’s biggest high-street banks is about to take the first step in bringing bitcoin, the controversial digital currency, into the mainstream, saying it has the “potential to change financial services”.

Barclays has been conducting experiments into bitcoin in “labs” in London, and working with start-ups. It now plans to test the virtual currency, allowing people to make donations to charities in bitcoin.

The bank has gone into partnership with a “bitcoin exchange”, or spending platform, and aims to begin the experiment by the end of the year. Derek White, chief design and digital officer at Barclays, said: “Barclays is enabling the bitcoin exchange to help charities accept bitcoin.”

Barclays is not the only bank looking into bitcoin, which is seen as a way