hypertreemerkleet

Hypertreemerkleet is a theoretical data structure that combines hypertree concepts with Merkle trees to provide verifiable commitments for large, hierarchically structured datasets. The name reflects its hybrid nature: a hypertree substrate for high-arity connectivity and a Merkle-like hash mechanism for authentication.

In this design, data elements reside as leaves grouped into clusters that are linked by hyperedges. Each hyperedge aggregates the hashes of its member subtrees, producing a hash that represents the relationship among those elements. The root hash serves as a single commitment to the entire dataset. Unlike standard Merkle trees, hypertreemerkleet allows hyperedges to connect arbitrary numbers of children, enabling multi-way relationships and more flexible data modeling.

Operations include generating membership proofs for a given element by presenting the path through a sequence of hyperedges and corresponding hashes. Verification recomputes hashes up the hierarchy to the root. Proof size typically grows logarithmically with the number of elements and with the maximum hyperedge arity, and verification requires a small, fixed number of hash evaluations per level.

Applications are proposed in contexts such as scalable blockchains, verifiable databases, data provenance, and supply chains where many-to-many relationships must be modeled and authenticated efficiently.

Status: Hypertreemerkleet remains a theoretical concept with no formal standard. It is discussed in speculative and exploratory cryptography and distributed systems literature, and its practical viability depends on hash choices, arity bounds, and implementation details.