# Merkle Trees: The 45-Year-Old Idea That Still Holds the Blockchain Together Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/web3-tech-brief-by-hackernoon-6365654/merkle-trees-the-45-year-old-idea-that-still-holds-the-blockchain-together Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/web3-tech-brief-by-hackernoon-6365654/merkle-trees-the-45-year-old-idea-that-still-holds-the-blockchain-together.md Podcast: [Web3 Tech Brief By HackerNoon](https://stenobird.com/podcast/web3-tech-brief-by-hackernoon-6365654) Published: 2026-05-21T16:00:45+00:00 Episode link: https://share.transistor.fm/s/89c91017 Audio file: https://media.transistor.fm/89c91017/fcc69f88.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/web3-tech-brief-by-hackernoon-6365654/episodes/merkle-trees-the-45-year-old-idea-that-still-holds-the-blockchain-together Duration seconds: 1433 ## Resource This story was originally published on HackerNoon at: https://hackernoon.com/merkle-trees-the-45-year-old-idea-that-still-holds-the-blockchain-together . A clear guide to Merkle trees, from Bitcoin light wallets and Git diffs to Ethereum’s state trie and the shift toward Verkle trees. Check more stories related to web3 at: https://hackernoon.com/c/web3 . You can also check exclusive content about #web3 , #merkle-tree , #merkle-proof , #ethereum-state , #verkle-trees , #light-wallets , #git-hashing , #state-trie , and more. This story was written by: @arislanbekkalbaev . Learn more about this writer by checking @arislanbekkalbaev's about page, and for more stories, please visit hackernoon.com . A clear guide to Merkle trees, from Bitcoin light wallets and Git diffs to Ethereum’s state trie and the shift toward Verkle trees. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/web3-tech-brief-by-hackernoon-6365654/episodes/merkle-trees-the-45-year-old-idea-that-still-holds-the-blockchain-together/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/web3-tech-brief-by-hackernoon-6365654/merkle-trees-the-45-year-old-idea-that-still-holds-the-blockchain-together.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.