Merkle tree
cryptography · data-structure
A Merkle tree is a binary tree of hashes that enables efficient verification of large data sets, used in blockchains for transaction inclusion proofs.
- Also known as
- hash tree
Leaves are hashes of data chunks; parents hash their children up to a root. Verifiers can check membership with a short proof without downloading the entire set.
Merkle trees provide logarithmic proof size and support efficient updates. Variants include Merkle Patricia tries used in account-based chains.
Related terms
Hash
→A fixed-size digest produced by a one-way function, used for data integrity, identifiers, signatures, and proof-of-work.
cryptography · security
Block
→A batch of valid transactions added to a blockchain, linked to the previous block by a cryptographic hash.
mining · blockchain · security
Proof of Work (PoW)
→A consensus mechanism that makes block production require verifiable computational work.
mining · blockchain · consensus