"Nonce" is an abbreviation for "Number used once" and is also known as "nance.
" Literally translated from English, it means a disposable number used only once. In Bitcoin, the term "nonce" refers to the 32-bit number created by miners when generating a transaction block. To generate a block
, miners must calculate a hash value that is smaller than the set mining difficulty.
To successfully mine and receive Bitcoin as a reward, miners must find a nonce value where the first 16 or 17 digits of the resulting 64-digit alphanumeric string—which is created by adding the hash values of all previous transactions, pending transactions, and the nonce value, then running the result through a hash function—are all zeros.
Since the nonce value cannot be calculated in reverse from the 64-digit alphanumeric string, miners systematically calculate every possible combination.
Although the hash value remains the same no matter how many times it is calculated, miners are constantly changing the nonce to alter the hash value as they search for a valid one. To achieve this
, thousands of high-speed computers are deployed to perform rapid calculations, intensifying the competition among miners to find the correct nonce.
