The Royal Mint is to offer a new way to invest in gold using the technology behind Bitcoin, the digital currency, launching in 2017.

This marriage of arguably the world’s oldest asset with its most futuristic technology is said to offer significant benefits to private investors – if they can understand how it works.

The following Q&A should help.

What exactly is the Royal Mint going to offer?

It is already possible to buy and sell gold online – without the trouble of taking delivery and storing the precious metal – but investors currently need to use specialist websites such as BullionVault.

The Royal Mint’s new service, by contrast, is intended to allow investors to trade its gold, held in the Mint’s vaults, at any hour of the day or night via their existing investment shop.

No such firms are on board yet, but a spokesman for the Mint confirmed that it had mainstream companies such as Hargreaves Lansdown in mind as partners for the new service.