Why Computers Can’t Count Money

From the creator

Ever wonder why computers struggle with basic math? This video explores a massive class of software bugs from the early 2000s that allowed people to generate real money out of thin air. As early digital payment systems and banks rushed to digitize, engineers relied on standard floating-point numbers to process currency. However, because computers use binary (Base 2) rather than decimal (Base 10), certain fractions like $0.1$ and $0.2$ cannot be represented exactly—leading to minuscule rounding errors. Video created by @aniakubow ❤️ Support for this channel comes from our friends at Scrimba – the coding platform that's reinvented interactive learning: https://scrimba.com/freecodecamp 🎉 Thanks to our Champion and Sponsor supporters: 👾 @omerhattapoglu1158 👾 @goddardtan 👾 @akihayashi6629 👾 @kikilogsin 👾 @anthonycampbell2148 👾 @tobymiller7790 👾 @rajibdassharma497 👾 @CloudVirtualizationEnthusiast 👾 @adilsoncarlosvianacarlos 👾 @martinmacchia1564 👾 @ulisesmoralez4160 👾 @_Oscar_ 👾 @jedi-or-sith2728 👾 @justinhual1290 -- Learn to code for free and get a developer job: https://www.freecodecamp.org Read hundreds of articles on programming: https://freecodecamp.org/news

Published 2026-06-18 · Watch on YouTube ↗
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