Recall that you learnt about the various roles of the nodes in the Bitcoin network. Let’s quickly recap those roles and analyze the SPV node in detail in the upcoming video.
The primary purpose of having SPV nodes is to validate the transactions without having computationally intensive machines. The SPV nodes just store the block headers and can validate whether a transaction is present in a block or not. They don’t have the entire blockchain data and use the Merkel Root to arrive at a conclusion regarding a transaction.
The use of SPV nodes is done due to the fact that proof of work is computationally heavy and requires a lot of resources by the nodes. This is one of the challenges that has prompted developers to think of alternative solutions to proof of work. You will learn more about this in the upcoming section.