Nonce
A number used once, particularly in mining where it's varied to find a valid block hash.
In-Depth Explanation
In proof-of-work mining, the nonce is the variable miners change to produce different hashes. They increment the nonce, hash the block header, check if it meets difficulty requirements, and repeat billions of times. In transactions, nonces prevent replay attacks by ensuring each transaction from an address has a unique sequence number.
Related Terms
Mining
The process of using computational power to validate transactions and add new blocks to a proof-of-work blockchain.
Hash
A fixed-size output produced by a cryptographic function that uniquely represents input data.
Proof of Work
PoWA consensus mechanism where miners compete to solve computational puzzles, with the winner adding the next block and earning rewards.
More in Infrastructure
View all →Gas Fees
Transaction fees paid to validators/miners for executing operations on a blockchain.
Gwei
A denomination of Ether equal to one billionth of an ETH, commonly used to express gas prices.
Layer 2
L2Scaling solutions built on top of a base blockchain (L1) that process transactions off-chain while inheriting L1 security.
Layer 1
L1The base blockchain that provides security and consensus, such as Ethereum, Bitcoin, or Solana.