Are Off-Block Chain Transactions Bad for Bitcoin?

Are Off-Block Chain Transactions Bad for Bitcoin?

Bitcoin was designed to be a decentralized and trustless payment network - with the power to do this provided by the block chain and its ability to publicly confirm the digital currency's digital transactions. Rather contentiously, however, as the bitcoin economy expands, more and more transactions are being carried out off the block chain. Such transactions are tracked on private databases instead of the block chain, and cannot be publicly tracked. There are pros and cons to both systems. So, which are better? Off-block chain or on-block chain transactions? Visible payments. Legitimate....


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