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What Is the Computational Advantage of Using a Merkle Tree Structure?

The primary advantage is the logarithmic time complexity for verification. Instead of checking every transaction in a block, which could be thousands, verification only requires a number of hash operations equal to the logarithm of the total number of transactions.

This drastically reduces the computational load and bandwidth required for transaction validation across the network.

What Is the Efficiency Gain of Using a Merkle Tree over Hashing the Entire Block Data?
What Is a ‘Merkle Tree’ and How Does It Use Cryptographic Hashing?
Where Else besides Bitcoin Is the Merkle Tree Structure Used in Cryptocurrency?
What Is the Role of a Merkle Tree in Transaction Verification?