A blockchain is a type of database; its a way of storing records of value and transactions however it differs from a typical database.
Blockchains store the data in blocks which are then chained together.
It is a growing list of records, called blocks, that are linked together using cryptography where each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block along with a timestamp and transaction data.
Nowadays most transactions between people require an intermediary to provide trust, security, and facilitate the transaction e.g., banks, financial institutions.
Blockchain removes the need of an intermediary, so that people can easily transact directly with each other.
Merkle trees Merkle tree also known as hash tree is a data structure used for data verification and synchronization. It is a tree data structure where each non-leaf node is a hash of it’s child nodes.
The Merkle Tree has been around since 1979, Ralph Merkle wrote a paper titled “A Certified Digital Signature” during his time at Stanford, and unknowingly created a major component of blockchain.
In his paper, Merkle described a brand new method of creating proofs. Essentially, Merkle designed a process for verifying data that would allow computers to work much faster than before.
Merkle tree are basically binary trees that contain cryptographic hashes, they are also known as Binary Hash Tree.
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