Verkle Tree
data-structures · scalability
A commitment tree using vector commitments to create smaller state proofs than many Merkle tree designs.
A Verkle tree is a cryptographic commitment structure that can prove values in a large key-value map with compact witnesses. It replaces hash-only branches with vector commitments to reduce proof size.
Verkle trees are researched for stateless blockchain clients and more efficient state access. They can reduce bandwidth for proofs, but they require new cryptographic assumptions and careful migration from existing state structures.
Related terms
Merkle tree
→A Merkle tree is a binary tree of hashes that enables efficient verification of large data sets, used in blockchains for transaction inclusion proofs.
cryptography · data-structure
Virtual Machine
→A deterministic execution environment that runs smart contract code the same way across validating nodes.
computing · blockchain
Rollup
→A Layer-2 technique that executes transactions off-chain and posts compressed proofs or data to the base chain.
layer-2 · scalability