diff --git a/src/key.h b/src/key.h
index 762fd1ecb..e03732d84 100644
--- a/src/key.h
+++ b/src/key.h
@@ -51,6 +51,8 @@ private:
     //! The actual byte data
     unsigned char vch[32];
 
+    static_assert(sizeof(vch) == 32, "vch must be 32 bytes in length to not break serialization");
+
     //! Check whether the 32-byte array pointed to be vch is valid keydata.
     bool static Check(const unsigned char* vch);
 
@@ -76,20 +78,19 @@ public:
 
     friend bool operator==(const CKey& a, const CKey& b)
     {
-        return a.fCompressed == b.fCompressed && a.size() == b.size() &&
-               memcmp(&a.vch[0], &b.vch[0], a.size()) == 0;
+        return a.fCompressed == b.fCompressed &&
+            a.size() == b.size() &&
+            memcmp(&a.vch[0], &b.vch[0], a.size()) == 0;
     }
 
     //! Initialize using begin and end iterators to byte data.
     template <typename T>
     void Set(const T pbegin, const T pend, bool fCompressedIn)
     {
-        if (pend - pbegin != 32) {
+        if (pend - pbegin != sizeof(vch)) {
             fValid = false;
-            return;
-        }
-        if (Check(&pbegin[0])) {
-            memcpy(vch, (unsigned char*)&pbegin[0], 32);
+        } else if (Check(&pbegin[0])) {
+            memcpy(vch, (unsigned char*)&pbegin[0], sizeof(vch));
             fValid = true;
             fCompressed = fCompressedIn;
         } else {
@@ -98,7 +99,7 @@ public:
     }
 
     //! Simple read-only vector-like interface.
-    unsigned int size() const { return (fValid ? 32 : 0); }
+    unsigned int size() const { return (fValid ? sizeof(vch) : 0); }
     const unsigned char* begin() const { return vch; }
     const unsigned char* end() const { return vch + size(); }
 
@@ -116,7 +117,7 @@ public:
 
     /**
      * Convert the private key to a CPrivKey (serialized OpenSSL private key data).
-     * This is expensive. 
+     * This is expensive.
      */
     CPrivKey GetPrivKey() const;
 
@@ -166,8 +167,11 @@ struct CExtKey {
 
     friend bool operator==(const CExtKey& a, const CExtKey& b)
     {
-        return a.nDepth == b.nDepth && memcmp(&a.vchFingerprint[0], &b.vchFingerprint[0], 4) == 0 && a.nChild == b.nChild &&
-               a.chaincode == b.chaincode && a.key == b.key;
+        return a.nDepth == b.nDepth &&
+            memcmp(&a.vchFingerprint[0], &b.vchFingerprint[0], sizeof(vchFingerprint)) == 0 &&
+            a.nChild == b.nChild &&
+            a.chaincode == b.chaincode &&
+            a.key == b.key;
     }
 
     void Encode(unsigned char code[BIP32_EXTKEY_SIZE]) const;
diff --git a/src/pubkey.h b/src/pubkey.h
index 2f5bd6aaa..edca4083b 100644
--- a/src/pubkey.h
+++ b/src/pubkey.h
@@ -164,7 +164,7 @@ public:
 
     /*
      * Check syntactic correctness.
-     * 
+     *
      * Note that this is consensus critical as CheckSig() calls it!
      */
     bool IsValid() const
@@ -211,8 +211,11 @@ struct CExtPubKey {
 
     friend bool operator==(const CExtPubKey &a, const CExtPubKey &b)
     {
-        return a.nDepth == b.nDepth && memcmp(&a.vchFingerprint[0], &b.vchFingerprint[0], 4) == 0 && a.nChild == b.nChild &&
-               a.chaincode == b.chaincode && a.pubkey == b.pubkey;
+        return a.nDepth == b.nDepth &&
+            memcmp(&a.vchFingerprint[0], &b.vchFingerprint[0], sizeof(vchFingerprint)) == 0 &&
+            a.nChild == b.nChild &&
+            a.chaincode == b.chaincode &&
+            a.pubkey == b.pubkey;
     }
 
     void Encode(unsigned char code[BIP32_EXTKEY_SIZE]) const;