diff --git a/common/bitutil/compress_test.go b/common/bitutil/compress_test.go
index 805ab0369..9bd1de103 100644
--- a/common/bitutil/compress_test.go
+++ b/common/bitutil/compress_test.go
@@ -121,20 +121,20 @@ func TestCompression(t *testing.T) {
 	in := hexutil.MustDecode("0x4912385c0e7b64000000")
 	out := hexutil.MustDecode("0x80fe4912385c0e7b64")
 
-	if data := CompressBytes(in); bytes.Compare(data, out) != 0 {
+	if data := CompressBytes(in); !bytes.Equal(data, out) {
 		t.Errorf("encoding mismatch for sparse data: have %x, want %x", data, out)
 	}
-	if data, err := DecompressBytes(out, len(in)); err != nil || bytes.Compare(data, in) != 0 {
+	if data, err := DecompressBytes(out, len(in)); err != nil || !bytes.Equal(data, in) {
 		t.Errorf("decoding mismatch for sparse data: have %x, want %x, error %v", data, in, err)
 	}
 	// Check the the compression returns the input if the bitset encoding is longer
 	in = hexutil.MustDecode("0xdf7070533534333636313639343638373532313536346c1bc33339343837313070706336343035336336346c65fefb3930393233383838ac2f65fefb")
 	out = hexutil.MustDecode("0xdf7070533534333636313639343638373532313536346c1bc33339343837313070706336343035336336346c65fefb3930393233383838ac2f65fefb")
 
-	if data := CompressBytes(in); bytes.Compare(data, out) != 0 {
+	if data := CompressBytes(in); !bytes.Equal(data, out) {
 		t.Errorf("encoding mismatch for dense data: have %x, want %x", data, out)
 	}
-	if data, err := DecompressBytes(out, len(in)); err != nil || bytes.Compare(data, in) != 0 {
+	if data, err := DecompressBytes(out, len(in)); err != nil || !bytes.Equal(data, in) {
 		t.Errorf("decoding mismatch for dense data: have %x, want %x, error %v", data, in, err)
 	}
 	// Check that decompressing a longer input than the target fails
diff --git a/common/hexutil/json.go b/common/hexutil/json.go
index 943288fad..11e14cae7 100644
--- a/common/hexutil/json.go
+++ b/common/hexutil/json.go
@@ -26,11 +26,10 @@ import (
 )
 
 var (
-	textZero = []byte(`0x0`)
-	bytesT   = reflect.TypeOf(Bytes(nil))
-	bigT     = reflect.TypeOf((*Big)(nil))
-	uintT    = reflect.TypeOf(Uint(0))
-	uint64T  = reflect.TypeOf(Uint64(0))
+	bytesT  = reflect.TypeOf(Bytes(nil))
+	bigT    = reflect.TypeOf((*Big)(nil))
+	uintT   = reflect.TypeOf(Uint(0))
+	uint64T = reflect.TypeOf(Uint64(0))
 )
 
 // Bytes marshals/unmarshals as a JSON string with 0x prefix.