double-spending

Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper

Satoshi explains transaction finality, the target of 10-minute block intervals, and how Bitcoin transactions become sufficiently irreversible in 1-2 hours.

[p2p-research] Bitcoin open source implementation of P2P currency

Satoshi explains Bitcoin's fixed supply of 21,000,000 coins and how it differs from David Chaum's system, in response to Martien van Steenbergen's questions on the P2P Research mailing list.

Bitcoin snack machine (fast transaction problem)

Satoshi describes how a payment processor could enable fast Bitcoin transactions with good-enough checking in 10 seconds, explaining the propagation race that makes double-spending impractical.