Merkle Tree

A Merkle Tree, also known as a hash tree, is a fundamental cryptographic data structure in blockchain technology that efficiently verifies the integrity and authenticity of large sets of data, such as all the transactions within a block, by recursively hashing pairs of data until a single root hash, the Merkle Root, is produced. This structure allows for the quick and trustless verification of any single piece of data's inclusion in the set without needing to download the entire dataset, a process known as a Merkle Proof.