What Is the Difference between a ‘UTXO’ and an ‘Account’ Model in Blockchains?
The UTXO (Unspent Transaction Output) model, used by Bitcoin, tracks money as a collection of unspent outputs from previous transactions, similar to physical cash. The Account model, used by Ethereum, tracks balances in a global state, similar to a bank account.
UTXO is generally more private and scalable for simple payments; Account is better for complex smart contracts.