An orphan in cryptocurrency refers to a block that has been created but is no longer part of the longest valid chain. This can happen when two miners solve a block almost simultaneously, leading to a temporary split in the blockchain. When this occurs, nodes on the network may receive different versions of the blockchain, each including its own newly mined block. Eventually, one chain will become longer as more blocks are added, and the shorter chain, along with its orphaned block, is discarded by the network as it reaches consensus on the longest chain.Orphaned blocks do not disappear completely. They may still have valid transactions, and miners who include them in their calculations can lose the rewards for mining those blocks since only the blocks in the longest chain are acknowledged for rewards. This concept highlights the importance of consensus in maintaining a single, agreed-upon version of the blockchain, ensuring that all participants have a consistent understanding of the ledger.