How Do ‘Futures Contracts’ Mitigate Counterparty Risk Compared to a Double-Spend Scenario?

Futures contracts mitigate counterparty risk through a clearing house that acts as an intermediary for all trades. The clearing house guarantees the performance of both the buyer and the seller.

This is a centralized solution. A double-spend scenario is prevented by the decentralized blockchain consensus, which cryptographically and economically ensures a transaction is final and non-reversible.