Cryptographic Primitives

Cryptographic primitives are the load-bearing layer underneath every blockchain. Hashes, Merkle trees, Patricia tries, CSPRNGs, and MACs are not decoration—they are what make integrity, efficiency, and verifiability possible at scale. This chapter walks through each one: what it does, where it sits in the stack, and where the assumptions behind it can snap. By the end, you will be able to explain: