Blockchain technology has seen a booming high in recent years. Especially after the foundation of Bitcoin in 2009, many new cryptocurrencies and tokens have entered different blockchains.
Blockchain technology has created a trustworthy decentralized system far from what we are used to. Centralized banks have managed the economy for centuries. Blockchain technology has shown that even if a system is decentralized and there is no intermediary, it is still safe and trustworthy.
The data in a blockchain is connected through an end-to-end encryption system. Everyone who is part of the blockchain is connected, leaving cryptocurrencies with no need for a main location and data center. Merkle Trees are data structures commonly used to encrypt blockchain data.
What Are Merkle Trees?
Merkle Trees are a form of Hash Trees commonly used in Computer Science for encryption. However, they are mainly used for encrypting blockchain data. They are mathematical data structures made up of hashes of different transactions of different data blocks in a blockchain network. It enables quick and secure content verification across data sets, mainly big data sets.
In Merkle Trees, every “leaf” (otherwise known as “node”) is given a cryptographic hash of a data block. Nodes that are not “leafs”, more commonly known as a branch or inner node, are given cryptographic hashes of their child nodes.
Where Are Merkle Trees Used?
As we saw earlier, their main use is in Blockchain technology for encrypting the blocks in a network. However, many other services use Merkle trees and we will talk about some more well-known ones.
- GIT (Global Information Tracker) – is an open source distributed version control system designed to handle projects no matter big or small for better efficiency.
- IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) – is an open-source, file-sharing, peer-to-peer network and, through using Merkle Trees it allows computers to join and use a centralized file system.
- Database Systems – are some of the other main uses of Merkle Trees. One of the most well-known is Amazon DynamoDB, where during the replication process they are used to control discrepancies.
There are other uses for Merkle Trees that are honorable mentions. One honorable mention is the use of Merkle Trees in a technique that generates verifiable certificate transparency logs.
What Is a Merkle Root?
Merkle Roots are very important for Merkle Trees. They are much needed in the blockchain network, especially, to make sure that everything is secure during transactions. But what are Merkle’s roots? A Merkle root is a simple mathematical method for confirming a Merkle tree.
They are mainly used, as we said, in cryptocurrencies and blockchain networks to make sure that all data blocks sent through the peer-to-peer network are safe and secure. This makes them important to use for cryptocurrency networks.
How Do Merkle Trees Work?
It is important to understand how Merkle Trees work. We have seen until now where they are mainly used, what they do, and what they are, but to fully understand a Merkle tree it’s good to understand the basics of its functionalities.
A Merkle tree gets all transactions in a block while creating a digital fingerprint of the entire set of operations, making the user able to verify if the transactions given are in the block. To explain it better, a Merkle tree takes into consideration every operation done for all transactions in a block to then verify to the users that the transactions have been completed.
(How a Merkle tree works, source: Simplilearn)
They are generated from the bottom using transaction IDs, where these IDs are hashes of transactions. All the non-leaf nodes are hashes of previous hashes, while the leaf nodes are just hashes of individual transaction data.
(Merkle tree visual understanding, source: Wikipedia)
Are Merkle Trees Important in Blockchain?
Simply said, Merkle trees are important in blockchain networks. They offer verification in a very efficient way. They also offer efficiency in the validity of blocks and reduce the memory needed for these verifications. So yes, to summarize it briefly, they are important in blockchain networks.
What Are Verkle Trees?
The Verkle trees are a big and important update to the Merkle trees that we talked about. Verkle trees are proving themselves day by day on the Ethereum blockchain. They serve almost the same purpose as Merkle trees.
We explained how Merkle trees work, and that is almost the same functionality that Verkle trees serve. So, you can put data in a Verkle tree and then make it possible that anyone with the root of the data to be able to verify the data. However, Verkle trees have the advantage of being much more efficient at bigger proof sizes.
The best way to explain the difference is through an example. Let us say that we have a tree that contains somewhere around 1 billion pieces of data. Normally a Merkle tree would require around 1 kilobyte to make one proof in traditional binary. A Verkle tree would only require around 150 bytes to make one proof.
Comparing Merkle Trees With Verkle Trees
Now we understand what Merkle and Verkle trees are. We also understand how they work. So now we will get into comparing the two trees and seeing which one is better. Though they are both equally needed and important in the blockchain network and we must not forget that Verkle trees are mainly used in Ethereum for now while Merkle trees are widespread.
Merkle VS Verkle Tree Node Structure
Verkle trees are pretty much the same as Merkle Patricia trees. The only difference is that Verkle trees are wider most of the time in practice. The Merkle Patricia tree is used in the Ethereum blockchain. The Verkle trees used in Ethereum and proposed by Ethereum have a width of 256. Patricia trees, on the other hand, are optimal at a width of 2.
Merkle trees need a lot of nodes. What does that mean? Well, the proof of a value in Merkle trees consists of sister nodes. So to prove a node, the proof needs to have all the nodes that share parents down the path.
In Verkle trees, however, this is not necessary. You do not need sister nodes along the path. In reality, all you need is to provide a path as proof. This explains why Verkle trees are better with more width compared to Patricia trees.
(Here it shows how there is no need for sister nodes in Verkle trees. Source: Vitalik)
Are Verkle Trees Better Than Merkle Trees?
As we have seen until now, we understand that Verkel trees are upgraded versions of Merkle trees. By comparing the trees used by Ethereum (Merkle Patricia tree and Verkle tree), we understand that verkle trees are much more beneficial in the blockchain.
Verkle trees need fewer nodes to prove nodes, are more efficient, can use more width, and many more reasons why they are better than Merkle trees.
They are a big upgrade to Merkle trees by needing the proof sizes to be much smaller. However, the cryptography needed to implement Verkle trees in a blockchain is very complicated and may take a long time to implement.
Takeaways
- Blockchain technology has created a trustworthy decentralized system far from what we are used to.
- The data in Blockchain is connected through an end-to-end encryption system.
- Merkle Trees are a form of Hash Trees commonly used in Computer Science for encryption, however, they are mainly used for encrypting blockchain data.
- One honorable mention is the use of Merkle Trees in a technique that generates verifiable certificate transparency logs.
- A Merkle root is a simple mathematical method for confirming a Merkle tree.
- Merkle trees are important in blockchain networks.
- Verkle trees have the advantage of being much more efficient in larger proof sizes than Merkle trees.
- The cryptography needed to implement Verkle trees in a blockchain is very complicated and may take a long time to implement.
