How Does a Race Attack Attempt to Double-Spend Cryptocurrency?

A race attack is a type of double-spending attack where an attacker sends two conflicting transactions in quick succession to two different vendors. The goal is to have one transaction confirmed for the goods or services and the other transaction sent back to the attacker's own wallet.

This attack relies on the short time window before a transaction is included in a block. To mitigate this, merchants should wait for at least one confirmation before considering a transaction final.