What is a nonce number?

A nonce is a random or semi-random number that is generated for a specific use. It is related to cryptographic communication and information technology (IT). The term stands for "number used once" or "number once" and is commonly referred to as a cryptographic nonce.

What is a nonce in cryptography?

Nonce is used by authentication protocols to ensure that old communications cannot be reprocessed. Hashing. Proof of work systems use nonce values to vary input to a cryptographic hash function. This helps fulfill arbitrary conditions and provide a desired difficulty. Initialization. An initialization vector is a nonce used for data encryption.

What is an example of a nonce?

A time-varying value that has an acceptably small chance of repeating. For example, a nonce is a random value that is generated anew for each use, a timestamp, a sequence number, or some combination of these. A time-varying value that has (at most) an acceptably small chance of repeating.