Merkle Tree is a methodologyMethodology refers to practices, processes, rules, or guidelines used in systems development. Read More used to validate data structure and ensure data authenticity. The primary goal of this methodology is to organize large amounts of data to reduce the amount of work required to verify it. A Merkle Tree is created by hashing each nodeNodes are individual computers connected to the blockchain network that validate and relay transactions. Nodes may receive cryptocurrency rewards as... Read More in a dataset. Nodes are organized into a tree structure to compute the hashA hash is a fixed-length code representing any length of words, messages, or data generated by a hashing algorithm. In... Read More of the entire tree (root). If data in a node changes, the root hash changes. As a result, only the root hash must compute to confirm the integrity of the entire dataset.
Blockchains use Merkle Trees to organize data for security and to improve the efficiency of verifying transactions. New transactions produce a hash valueA hash value is the product of a hashing algorithm applied to original data to create a unique numerical value... Read More. The blockchainAs a distributed ledger technology (DLT), a blockchain is a digital ledger that can create an immutable record of transactions.... Read More pairs the hash value of each with transactionA transaction is a record of an event that occurred in the past. Transactions typically occur during the course of... Read More another transaction’s hash value and then hashes them together to create a combined hash value (i.e., hash values “AB” and “CD”’ combine to create the hash value “BCE”). The combined hash represents the paired hashes of the two transactions. This process of pairing hash values continues with each transaction added, culminating in a final hash value for the blockA block is a specific type of construct in a blockchain that stores transactional information blocks typically contain transaction information... Read More (the Merkle root). The block creatorA block creator is an individual or group that creates blocks in a blockchain network. Block creators typically receive rewards... Read More adds the root hash to the block header and uses it to verify the integrity of the block header and all transactions associated with this block.
