Merkle Trees and Roots was a mathematical concept first proposed in the earlier days of computer science by Ralph Merkle. His theory was simple: verify the integrity of data as efficiently as possible. Fast forward to today and his concept has been applied to blockchain as we know it.
It’s a highly technical concept but with every blockchain transaction there is a hash, that’s where we get the term “Hash rate” in Bitcoin miners. Every “block” has a certain amount of transaction hashes and the block itself is wrapped up in a hash. This is where merkle roots come in.
The merkle root hashes all of the other hashes and efficiently verifies the integrity of the block before the chain is allowed to move on. The merkle tree is included in the header and has access to all of the other hashes via the roots.
The point of these merkle trees is to make accessing random data points easier instead of needing to download the entire blockchain data and search for a certain transaction, merkle trees will mark the blocks and then the roots will allow for the in depth searches allowing for better security measures for verification.
Merkle roots are a breakthrough technology in cyber security, something much needed in the crypto space and software space in general. It allows for fast verification and identification of malicious files and transactions because it breaks down the long process of downloading terabytes of data into just fractions of that. This concept is applicable to nearly every computer application and data type and will streamline verification in the crypto space and protect users from malicious transactions.