What is a Ethereum nonce?

Ethereum nonce

Ethereum nonce is a number that is used only once in a specific transaction. It is an abbreviation for “number used once.” The nonce is a field in the Ethereum block header that miners use to generate a proof-of-work solution for the block.

When a miner creates a new block, they must include a valid nonce value in the block header that meets the required difficulty level of the network. The nonce is used as a random input to the mining process, which involves repeatedly hashing the block header until a solution is found that meets the difficulty target. Once a miner finds a valid nonce, they can broadcast the block to the network, which then adds it to the blockchain.

The nonce value is also used to prevent replay attacks. Every transaction in Ethereum has a unique nonce value that prevents the same transaction from being executed more than once. This helps to maintain the integrity of the blockchain and prevent malicious actors from executing fraudulent transactions.