diff --git a/src/mining/block.go b/src/mining/block.go
index ecfdea8..47cf474 100644
--- a/src/mining/block.go
+++ b/src/mining/block.go
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ import (
 	"os"
 
 	txn "github.com/humblenginr/btc-miner/transaction"
+	"github.com/humblenginr/btc-miner/utils"
 )
 
 // Data types taken from: https://developer.bitcoin.org/reference/block_chain.html
@@ -35,7 +36,7 @@ func (bh *BlockHeader) Serialize(w io.Writer) error {
 		return err
 	}
 
-	if _, err := w.Write(bh.MerkleRoot[:]); err != nil {
+	if _, err := w.Write(utils.ReverseBytes(bh.MerkleRoot[:])); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
 
diff --git a/src/mining/mining.go b/src/mining/mining.go
index 44d59e5..21303d2 100644
--- a/src/mining/mining.go
+++ b/src/mining/mining.go
@@ -17,16 +17,6 @@ var BlockVersion int32 = 0x00000004
 var targetDifficultyHexString = "0000ffff00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000"
 var prevBlockHash = "1cc89d151ecc14e3c323fd538f8259c3e6a5ecfeb467395f651de50818a50000"
 
-func findValidPrevBlockHash(nBits uint32) [32]byte {
-    for {
-        hash := utils.RandomSha256()
-        if HashToBig(&hash).Cmp(NbitsToTarget(nBits)) <= 0 {
-				return hash
-		}
-
-    }
-}
-
 func GetCandidateBlock(txns []*txn.Transaction, hasWitness bool) Block {
     tarDif := new(big.Int)
     fmt.Sscanf(targetDifficultyHexString, "%064x", tarDif)
@@ -49,7 +39,7 @@ func GetCandidateBlock(txns []*txn.Transaction, hasWitness bool) Block {
     // header
     nBits := TargetToNbits(tarDif)
     prevBH,_ := hex.DecodeString(prevBlockHash)
-    header := NewBlockHeader(BlockVersion, *utils.NewHash(prevBH), CalcMerkleRoot(blockTxns, false), time.Now().Unix(),nBits, 0)
+    header := NewBlockHeader(BlockVersion, [32]byte(prevBH), CalcMerkleRoot(blockTxns, false), time.Now().Unix(),nBits, 0)
     candidateBlock.BlockHeader = header
 
     // transactions