# Legacy - Bitcoin Primitives: Merkle Trees

### Introduction

There are three foundational concepts, if understood well, can make the initial learning journey for BSV easier we call them the primitives. While the other two concepts are Hash Functions and Digital signatures, the focus of this course is to cover Merkle trees. As this is a beginner-level course, it assumes no knowledge of BSV. This course is designed for anyone that wants to learn more about BSV and will introduce some general computer science techniques. Upon completion students will understand how these techniques enable the system to scale efficiently.

**At the end of the course you will understand the following:**

1. What Merkle trees are.
2. How Merkle trees are used in BSV.
3. Why Merkle trees are used in BSV
4. How Merkle trees help BSV scale.
5. What elements are involved in a Standardised Merkle Proof.


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