What is a function that converts an input of letters and numbers into an encrypted output of a fixed length multiple choice genesis block hash block proof of stake?

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"Nonce" is a portmanteau of "number used only once." It is a four-bit number added to a hashed—or encrypted—block in a blockchain that, when rehashed, meets the difficulty level restrictions. The nonce is the number that blockchain miners are solving for. When the solution is found, the blockchain miner that solves it is given the block reward.

Learn more about the nonce and why it is important to some blockchains.

• Nonce, a "number only used once," refers to the number a blockchain miner needs to discover before solving for a block in the blockchain.
• Once the miner solves the hash, they receive the block reward.
  
• Miners open new blocks by generating a nonce that makes the hash they create less than the hash from the block they are validating.

A blockchain's security relies on its ability to create and validate long, encrypted numbers, sometimes called a "hash." The cryptographic function used to generate a hash is deterministic, meaning that it will produce the same result each time the same input is used.

It also means that the function can generate a hashed input efficiently. This makes determining the input difficult (leading to the blockchain's security), and small changes to the input result in a different hash. This complex system creates the security net of a blockchain.

To keep the blockchain secure, data from previous blocks are encrypted or “hashed” into a series of numbers that is the block header for the next block. The block header is one of the fields in a block on a blockchain.

Transactions on a blockchain are aggregated into blocks from a memory pool based on the age of the transaction or the amount of fees paid.

The header is metadata, which contains the blockchain version number, the previous block's hash, the Merkel Root, timestamp, the difficulty target, and the nonce. The nonce is the value that miners are trying to solve for.

The nonce is used to validate the information contained within a block. The mining program generates a random number, appends it to the hash of the current header, rehashes the value, and compares this to the target hash. If the resulting hash value meets the requirements, the miner has created a solution and is awarded the block. If the value doesn't match the target, the nonce is increased by one, and the process starts again. This continues until one miner meets the target.

Most blocks are opened by mining pools because the mining difficulty is so high a single miner is unlikely to have enough hashing power to keep up, measured in the number of hashes per second that a miner is capable of. A home computer with the latest equipment might have a hashrate of 100 mega hashes per second (6 zeros, or million), where a mining farm full of ASIC miners might hash around 30 exa hashes per second (18 zeros, or quintillion).

It is highly unlikely that the nonce will be guessed on the first try. Miners generally have to test a large number of nonce options before getting it right. The greater the difficulty—a measure of how hard it is to create a hash less than the target—the longer it is likely to take to generate a solution.

Block difficulty is kept the same across the entire network, meaning that all miners have the same chance of figuring out the correct hash. Cryptocurrency networks typically establish a target number of blocks they want to be processed during a specific period and occasionally adjust the difficulty to ensure that this target is met. If the number of blocks processed does not meet this target, the difficulty will be reduced, with the reduction in difficulty set to how much time the process was over the limit.

In cryptocurrency, a nonce is an abbreviation for "number only used once," which is a number added to a hashed—or encrypted—block in a blockchain that, when rehashed, meets the difficulty level restrictions. The nonce is the number that blockchain miners are solving to receive the block reward.

A blockchain nonce is a number added to a hashed—or encrypted—block in a blockchain.

In cryptocurrency, nonces are used as the number that is used in a hash to verify the transactions and other data contained in a block.

P2P refers to interactions that happen between two parties, usually two separate individuals. A P2P network can be any number of individuals. In regards to a blockchain network, individuals are able to transact or interact with each other without relying on an intermediary or single point of failure.

Parity Technologies is the name of a blockchain technology company that is developing a number of significant projects in the Ethereum space; however, one of its first projects was an Ethereum client, now known as Parity Ethereum; often this client is simply referred to as ‘Parity’. See also ‘client’.

A blockchain network in which access to ledger or network requires permission from an individual or group of individuals, as opposed to a public blockchain. Permissioned ledgers may have one or many owners. Consensus on a permissioned ledger is conducted by the trusted actors, such as government departments, banks, or other known entities. Permissioned blockchains or ledgers contain highly-verifiable data sets because the consensus process creates a digital signature, which can be seen by all parties. A permissioned ledger is much easier to maintain and considerably faster than a public blockchain. For example, Quorum or Hyperledger Besu are permissioned ledgers that can be more easily set up for large enterprises. In contrast, the public Ethereum blockchain is a permissionless ledger which anyone can access.

Plasma is a term that is used to refer to one of the scaling solutions being deployed to create Layer 2 of the Ethereum network. A Plasma network functions similarly to an Optimistic rollup, inasmuch as it relies on Layer 1 Ethereum mainnet to maintain the record of transactions, and as the source for arbitration or fraud resolution. However, a Plasma network differs in other important technical ways from rollups, and is currently limited to simple operations, such as swaps and token transfers.

Acronyms standing for Proof of X consensus mechanisms: Assignment, Stake, Work. The “o” is lowercase since you wouldn’t capitalize “of” when writing out the phrase. See also ‘consensus’, ‘Proof of Authority’, ‘Proof of Stake’, ‘Proof of Work’.

A hybrid consensus model that utilizes a combination of Proof of Stake (PoS) and Proof of Work (PoW) consensus. Using this Hybrid consensus mechanism, blocks are validated from not only miners, but also voters (stakeholders) to form a balanced network governance.

A blockchain or distributed ledger that has a closed network where participants are controlled by a single entity. A private blockchain requires a verification process for new participants. A private blockchain may also limit which individuals are able to participate in consensus of the blockchain network. See also ‘permissioned ledger’.

A currency or token issued by a private individual or firm. Typically, the token or currency is limited to use within the network of that particular firm or individual. This is not to be confused with a “privacy cryptocurrency” which are cryptocurrency with specific privacy features, such as hidden user identities.

A private key is an alphanumeric string of data that, in MetaMask, corresponds to a single specific account in a wallet. Private keys can be thought of as a password that enables an individual to access their crypto account. Never reveal your private key to anyone, as whoever controls the private key controls the account funds. If you lose your private key, then you lose access to that account.

A consensus mechanism used in private blockchains, granting a single private key the authority to generate all of the blocks or validate transactions.

A consensus mechanism in which an individual or “validator” validates transactions or blocks. Validators “stake” their cryptocurrency, such as ether, on whichever transactions they choose to validate. If the individual validates a block (group of transactions) correctly then the individual receives a reward. Typically, if a validator verifies an incorrect transaction then they lose the cryptocurrency that they staked. PoS requires a negligible amount of computing power compared to Proof of Work consensus.

A consensus mechanism in which each block is ‘mined’ by a group of individuals or nodes on the network. Hashing a block, which is in itself an easy computational process, under PoW requires each miner to solve for a set, difficult variable. In effect, the process of hashing each block becomes a competition. This addition of solving for a target increases the difficulty of successfully hashing each block. For each hashed block, the overall process of hashing will have taken some time and computational effort. Thus, a hashed block is considered Proof of Work, and the miner that successfully hashes the block first receives a reward, in the form of cryptocurrency. PoW is singificantly more energy-intensive than other consensus mechanisms, such as Proof of Stake.

A set of rules that dictate how data is exchanged and transmitted. This pertains to cryptocurrency in blockchain when referring to the formal rules that outline how these actions are performed across a specific network.

A globally open network where anyone can participate in transactions, execute the consensus protocol to help determine which blocks get added to the chain, and maintain the shared ledger.

In cryptography, you have a keypair: the public and private key. You can derive a public key from a private key, but cannot derive a private key from a public key. The public key, therefore, is obtained and used by anyone to encrypt messages before they are sent to a known recipient with a matching private key for decryption. By pairing a public key with a private key, transactions not dependent on trusting involved parties or intermediaries. The public key encrypts a message into an unreadable format and the corresponding private key makes it readable again for the intended party, and the intended party only.