Digital Copy
Categories: Tech
No, a “digital copy” isn’t talking about that digital blackmail someone has on you for something you’ve since deleted. A digital copy is a good thing: it’s a key security feature underlying Bitcoin, the supes-popular cryptocurrency.
A digital copy of the transaction (called “the record”) is created for every Bitcoin transaction. A digital copy does two things: it prevents “double spending” when a user tries to buy from two different sellers with the same Bitcoin (ha, nice try), and it is one of the features that allows Bitcoin to function without a centralized body governing it (how most currencies work), since transactions are recorded on a decentralized system spread across multiple networks on ze “blockchain.”
Digital copies are what keep individual Bitcoins from getting duplicated virtually, and they keep track of exactly which unique-snowflake-Bitcoin goes where. Nobody can edit the record and try to be a sneaky fraudster since the transaction is basically on a public bulletin board that’s copied many places. Yeah, good luck with that.