What is the Merkle Tree?
When data is distributed across multiple hosts over a network and the data is transferred from one host to another, there should be some way to verify the integrity of the data stored in multiple nodes. For example, in BitTorrent, if we are not sure about the integrity of data stored in different nodes, the file-sharing will fall apart. Merkle Tree is a data structure that solves the purpose.
In cryptography and computer science, the Merkle Tree is a hash tree in which every leaf node stores some data, and every non-leaf node is labeled with the hash of the data of its children nodes. This Merkle Tree is used to verify data stored, handled, and transferred in and between computers. It is used to make sure that the data blocks received from other peers in a peer-to-peer network are unaltered and undamaged.
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