Double-spending is a potential flaw in a digital cash scheme in which the same single digital token can be spent more than once. Unlike physical cash, a digital token consists of a digital file that can be duplicated or falsified. As with counterfeit money, such double-spending leads to inflation by creating a new amount of copied currency that did not previously exist. This devalues the currency relative to other monetary units or goods and diminishes user trust as well as the circulation and retention of the currency. Fundamental cryptographic techniques to prevent double-spending, while preserving anonymity in a transaction, are blind signatures and, particularly in offline systems, secret splitting.A double-spending attack is a potential attack against cryptocurrencies that has happened to several cryptocurrencies, e.g. due to the 51% attack. While it hasn't happened against many of the largest cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin (with even the capability arising for it in 2014), it has happened to one of its forks, Bitcoin Gold, then 26th largest cryptocurrency.
