Merkle tree
Tree of hashes; root commits to all leaves.
Origin
Ralph Merkle, "A Certified Digital Signature," 1979. The same Merkle who later invented public-key cryptography. Bitcoin (2009) made Merkle trees a household name in tech.
Where it shows up in production
- Bitcoin block headers Each block commits to all its transactions via the Merkle root.
- Git Tree objects are Merkle trees over directory contents. Commit hashes commit transitively to everything.
- Certificate Transparency logs Append-only Merkle trees; inclusion proofs are O(log n) hashes.
On Semicolony
Sources & further reading
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