Merkle tree
A tree of hashes that commits to many data items through one root hash.
In more detail
Each layer combines commitments from below until only the root remains. This lets someone prove one item's inclusion without supplying every other item. Bitcoin builds a Merkle tree from transaction IDs to summarize a block's transactions, making compact inclusion checks possible for clients that have not downloaded them all.
How you might use it
Your light client gets the transaction and its path of hashes, rather than every transaction summarized by the tree.
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