The Merkle Cactus — jonCates (2025)
goodMorning Glitch Western Wednesday! ➝
while you may not know or see the Merkle trees they are actively securing && verifying data for you, such as transactions on blockchains. Merkle trees are cryptographic #data structures that let you prove a piece of data belongs to a larger set. in the case of this artwork on BASE, Merkle tree roots verify L2 → L1 state commitments && merkle proofs enable BASE to prove that a transaction, account, or piece of data on BASE is valid
Merkle trees && my Merkle Cactus are named after IRL computer scientist Ralph Merkle (born 1952), a foundational figure in #cryptography && inventor of the cryptographic hashing structures that bear his name (Merkle trees). he is the husband of pioneering video game designer Carol Shaw && is referenced by Neil Stephenson in his influential #cyberpunk novel The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer. in fact, Merkle himself proposed the term Diamond Age for the era of molecular machines, quantum computing, and nanotech, the science fiction turned science facts that we now navigate by glitches
im excited to say that this Glitch Western Art of mine, on the BASE #blockchain is now part of an auction exhibition held by 𝘼𝘾𝘾𝙊𝙈𝙋𝘼𝙍𝙏 && curated by one of my favoritre artists Françoise Gamma. the exhibition is called “INFO BAROQUE: When Information Becomes Ornament” +runs from April 15–22 / 2025 on 𝘼𝘾𝘾𝙊𝙈𝙋𝘼𝙍𝙏, which is, as they say, the first WEB3 Computer Art Auction House. this of course means that this Glitch Western Art is now available to collect as a one of one edition, part of my ongoing Glitch Art adventures… — jonCates (Glitch Western Wednesday, April 16th 2025)
