Recompute the path and compare it with the accepted root.
LET’S PICTURE IT
Follow the supplied route, then check that it reaches the building you intended.
SEE IT FOR YOURSELF
Build a root and follow one membership proofStep 1 / 4
This example hashes UTF-8 A, B, C and D. The displayed hashes are abbreviated, and the tree uses the playground’s sorted-pair convention.
This example hashes UTF-8 A, B, C and D. The displayed hashes are abbreviated, and the tree uses the playground’s sorted-pair convention.Each pair of raw child hashes is sorted, concatenated and hashed. The resulting parent fingerprints commit to their children.Hash the two parents under the same rule to obtain one root commitment. Changing a leaf changes the hashes on its path.The highlighted siblings are B and hash(C,D). Starting with A, the verifier recomputes its path and compares the final result with a trusted root.
Animated local teaching model. No wallet, RPC or live blockchain data. Some labels and hashes are abbreviated for readability.
Recreate the exact leaf
Use the protocol’s original value encoding and leaf-hash rule. A correctly processed path cannot rescue an incorrectly encoded starting leaf.
Fold the siblings
Combine the current node with the next sibling using the specified pair rule. Replace the current node with the resulting parent at each step.
Compare the final digest
The computed result must equal the independently accepted root. Merely reaching some digest does not establish membership in the intended tree.
Test a changed value
Keep the same proof but edit A to another text value in the local tool. The recomputed root should mismatch unless that changed value happens to satisfy the same committed path.