# What is a Merkle DAG?

**URL:** <https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/what-is-a-merkle-dag/386>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [May 23, 2017, 12:07am UTC](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/what-is-a-merkle-dag/386 "2017-05-23T00:07:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![flyingzumwalt](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.ipfs.tech/flyingzumwalt/32/12_2.png) [@flyingzumwalt](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/u/flyingzumwalt)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 12:07am UTC](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/what-is-a-merkle-dag/386/1 "2017-05-23T00:07:41Z")

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_From @Mithgol on Mon Sep 14 2015 14:27:32 GMT+0000 (UTC)_  
  
A Merkle DAG is a Merkle directed acyclic graph. That is a data structure similar to a [Merkle tree](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkle_tree) but not so strict: such DAG does not need to be balanced and its non-leaf nodes are allowed to contain data.

Correct?  
  
  
_Copied from original issue: [What is a Merkle DAG? · Issue #31 · ipfs-inactive/faq · GitHub](https://github.com/ipfs/faq/issues/31)_

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**Author:** ![flyingzumwalt](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.ipfs.tech/flyingzumwalt/32/12_2.png) [@flyingzumwalt](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/u/flyingzumwalt)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 12:08am UTC](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/what-is-a-merkle-dag/386/2 "2017-05-23T00:08:09Z")

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_From @jbenet on Mon Sep 14 2015 14:31:44 GMT+0000 (UTC)_  
  
Correct!

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**Author:** ![flyingzumwalt](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.ipfs.tech/flyingzumwalt/32/12_2.png) [@flyingzumwalt](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/u/flyingzumwalt)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 12:08am UTC](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/what-is-a-merkle-dag/386/3 "2017-05-23T00:08:35Z")

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_From @Mithgol on Mon Sep 14 2015 14:40:53 GMT+0000 (UTC)_  
  
And a hyperlink to the [spec of the IPFS Merkle DAG](https://github.com/ipfs/specs/tree/master/merkledag) for future references.

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**Author:** ![mikedotexe](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.ipfs.tech/mikedotexe/32/3262_2.png) [@mikedotexe](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/u/mikedotexe)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2019, 4:52pm UTC](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/what-is-a-merkle-dag/386/4 "2019-11-28T16:52:12Z")

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That link 404’s now. Here’s the spec as of today:

> <https://github.com/ipfs/specs/blob/master/MERKLE_DAG.md>

  
**Note:** The Merkle DAG has been deprecated in favor of [IPLD](https://github.com/ipld/specs)