What I am wondering is how the Merkle tree for a MAM stream is implemented in the Tangle. Is each set of new data in the stream basically a "leaf", and considered a separate transaction on the Tangle that requires confirmation from two tips?
2 Answers
Yes exactly, each leaf is a new transaction.
However, since Mam transactions do not have any “value”, they do not actually need any validation. They are immediately available to fetch after they are published
this article should help understand how MAM works:
https://medium.com/coinmonks/iota-mam-eloquently-explained-d7505863b413
