feat: better README.md (#2)

add a better readme, CONTRIBUTING.md and LICENSE.md files

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+# Contributing
+
+When contributing to this repository, please first discuss the change you wish to make via issue, email, or any other method with the owners of this repository before making a change.
+
+## Pull Request Process
+
+ - Please update the [tests](./tests) to reflect the changes.
+ - Update any documentation comments if required.
+ - Bump the version number and update the README.md to reflect the changes that this Pull Request would represent. The versioning scheme we use is SemVer.
+ - You may merge the Pull Request in once you have the sign-off of the repo maintainer, or if you do not have permission to do that, you may request the second reviewer to merge it for you.
+ 
+ Thank you!

LICENSE.md

@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+MIT License
+
+Copyright (c) 2021 Anton Suprunchuk
+
+Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
+of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
+in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
+to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
+copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
+furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
+
+The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
+copies or substantial portions of the Software.
+
+THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
+IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
+FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
+AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
+LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
+OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
+SOFTWARE.

README.md

@@ -1,18 +1,57 @@
-# rs_merkle
+# rs-merkle
 
-`rs_merkle` is the most advanced Merkle Tree library for Rust.
+[![Rayon crate](https://img.shields.io/crates/v/rs_merkle.svg)](https://crates.io/crates/rs_merkle)
+[![Rayon documentation](https://docs.rs/rs_merkle/badge.svg)](https://docs.rs/rs_merkle)
+[![Build and test](https://github.com/antouhou/rs-merkle/actions/workflows/test.yml/badge.svg?branch=master)](https://github.com/antouhou/rs-merkle/actions)
 
-Basic features include creation and verification of merkle proofs from a set of leaves.
+`rs-merkle` is the most advanced Merkle tree library for Rust. Basic features 
-This is often done in various cryptocurrencies.
+include building a Merkle tree, creation, and verification of Merkle proofs for 
+single and several elements, i.e. multi-proofs. Advanced features include making 
+transactional changes to the tree and rolling back to any previously committed 
+tree state, similarly to Git.
 
-Advanced features include being able to make transactional changes to a tree with
+`rs-merkle` is
-being able to roll back to any previous committed state of tree. This scenario is similar
+[available on crates.io](https://crates.io/crates/rs_merkle), and 
-to Git and can be found in databases and file systems.
+[API Documentation is available on docs.rs](https://docs.rs/rs_merkle/).
 
-Merkle Trees, also known as Hash Trees, are used to verify that two or more parties have
+## About Merkle trees
-the same data without exchanging the entire data collection.
 
-Merkle Trees are used in Git, Mercurial,ZFS, IPFS, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cassandra and many more.
+Merkle trees, also known as hash trees, are used to verify that two or more 
-In Git, for example, Merkle Trees are used to find a delta between the local and remote states,
+parties have the same data without exchanging the entire data collection.
-and transfer only the delta. In Bitcoin, Merkle Trees are used to verify that a transaction was
+
-included into the block without downloading the whole block contents.
+Merkle trees are used in Git, Mercurial, ZFS, IPFS, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cassandra,
+and many more. In Git, for example, Merkle trees are used to find a delta 
+between the local and remote repository states to transfer only the difference 
+between them over the network. In Bitcoin, Merkle trees are used to verify that 
+a transaction was included in the block without downloading the whole block 
+contents. ZFS uses Merkle trees to quickly verify data integrity, offering 
+protection from silent data corruption caused by phantom writes, bugs in disk 
+firmware, power surges, and other causes.
+
+## Usage
+
+Add the following to your `Cargo.toml`:
+
+```toml
+[dependencies]
+rs_merkle = "0.2"
+```
+
+## Documentation
+
+[Documentation is available on docs.rs](https://docs.rs/rs_merkle/).
+
+## Contributing
+
+Everyone is welcome to contribute in any way or form! For further details, 
+please read [CONTRIBUTING.md](./CONTRIBUTING.md)
+
+## Authors
+- [Anton Suprunchuk](https://github.com/antouhou) - [Website](https://antouhou.com)
+
+Also, see the list of contributors who participated in this project.
+
+## License
+
+This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the 
+[LICENSE.md](./LICENSE.md) file for details