GlossaryBeginner
Double-Spending
Successfully spending the same digital funds more than once.
Double-spending is the act of successfully spending the same digital funds more than once, a problem inherent to digital money that blockchain consensus mechanisms are specifically designed to prevent.
A well-functioning, sufficiently decentralized blockchain makes double-spending prohibitively difficult by requiring broad network agreement before a transaction is considered final.
Examples
- Waiting for multiple confirmations before treating a large transaction as final reduces double-spending risk.
- Preventing double-spending without a central authority was one of Bitcoin's core original design goals.