Question

Construct a Merkle tree out of the following four data items: “reserved” “volts” “with” “phantom”. Use the same process as we did in class exercise, using hex hashes as strings rather than numbers in subsequent hashes, and use capitalized hash strings. Enter the final root of the tree as your answer.

Answer 1

Merkle Trees are created by repeated hashing pairs of nodes until there is only one hash left.This type of hashing is called the root hash or the Merkle hash.They are constructed from the bottom up , from hashes of individual transactions.

Each leaf node is a hash of transactional data, and each non-leaf is a hash of its previous hashes. Merkle trees are binary and require an even number of leaf nodes.If the number of transactions is odd, the last hash will be duplicated once to create an even number of nodes.

An example of four transactions in a block : "reserved", "volts", "with" and "phantom"

Each of these is hashed, and the hash stored in each leaf node, resulting in Hash "reserved", "volts", "with" and "phantom". Consecutive pairs of leaf nodes are then summarized in a parent node by hashing Hash "reserved" and Hash "volts" , resulting Hash "reserved volts" Likely Hashing Hash "with" and Hash "phantom", resulting Hash "with phantom".

The hashes Hash "reserved volts" and Hash "with phantom" are then again hashed to produce the Root Hash which represents "reserved volts with phantom"

This hashing can be conducted on larger data sets.Consecutive blocks can be hashed until there is only one node at the top.

Thr Merkle Root hashing summarizes all the data in the related transactions, and is stored in the block header. It maintains the integrity of the data . If a single detail in any of the transactions or the order of the transaction changes, it do the Merkle Root. The Merkle Root allows for a quick and simple test of whether a specific transaction is included in the set or not.

A Merkle tree is different from a hash list .In the Merkle Tree , one branch can be downloaded at a time and the integrity of each branch can be immediately verified, even if the remaining of the tree is not yet available. It is a n advantage because files can be split up into very small data blocks, such that only small blocks need to be downloaded again if the original version is damaged.

Using Merkle tree significantly reduce the amount of data that a trusted authority has to maintain for verification purposes. It seprated the validation of data from the data itself. It can be reside locally or on a distributed system.

Benefits of Merkle Tree:

• Merkle Tree provide a means to prove the integrity and validity of data.
• Merkle Tree require little memory as the proofs are computationally easy and fast.
• Its proofs and management only require tiny amounts of information to be transmitted across networks.