and how it is mined

What is the nonce and how is it linked to Bitcoin mining?

The nonce (from English number only used once), an essential component in the Bitcoin mining process, is a random 32-bit number that miners adjust to find a valid hash that meets the network's difficulty requirements.

Each block in the network contains a header that includes the nonce, the hash of the previous block, the Merkle root (which represents the transactions of the block), among other elements.

Miners repeatedly modify the nonce and apply the SHA-256 hash function (used in Bitcoin) to the block header until they obtain a result that is lower than the difficulty target, allowing the block to be accepted by the network. This process is part of the Proof of Work (PoW) mechanism, which secures the network and promotes the decentralization of Bitcoin.