What Is a Merkle Tree and How Is It Used in Data Verification?

A Merkle Tree, or hash tree, is a data structure used in computer science and cryptography where every leaf node is labeled with the cryptographic hash of a data block, and every non-leaf node is labeled with the hash of its child nodes. It allows for efficient and secure verification of large data sets.

In blockchain, it is used to summarize all the transactions in a block, allowing for quick verification of any transaction's inclusion.