Authenticated data structures, such as Merkle trees, allow to verify the presence of a subset of data in a trustless way and without knowing the whole data set. This can be beneficial to several parts of the Lisk protocol: Using an authenticated data structure for transactions in a block allows to verify the inclusion of a transaction without knowing the whole transaction payload. Moreover, when creating a snapshot of the blockchain, an authenticated data structure allows for trustless queries for subsets of data without requiring to store or request the full snapshot.

LIP0031: Introduce Merkle trees and inclusion proofs Author Alessandro Ricottone Publication 18.03.20