diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index ea90ec33..46a09ff5 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ AC_FUNC_ALLOCA
 PKG_PROG_PKG_CONFIG()
 
 AC_CHECK_HEADERS(stdio.h stdlib.h fcntl.h sys/time.h unistd.h)
-AC_CHECK_HEADERS(ctype.h errno.h byteswap.h)
+AC_CHECK_HEADERS(ctype.h errno.h byteswap.h string.h)
 AC_CHECK_HEADERS(endian.h sys/endian.h arpa/inet.h)
 AC_CHECK_HEADERS(alloca.h pthread.h)
 AC_CHECK_HEADERS(sys/types.h sys/socket.h)
diff --git a/src/ckpool.h b/src/ckpool.h
index 7b6f4ff8..5be7fb14 100644
--- a/src/ckpool.h
+++ b/src/ckpool.h
@@ -67,6 +67,9 @@
 #define __maybe_unused		__attribute__((unused))
 #define uninitialised_var(x) x = x
 
+/* Typedefs are evil but we use this one so often... */
+typedef unsigned char uchar;
+
 static inline void swap_256(void *dest_p, const void *src_p)
 {
 	uint32_t *dest = dest_p;
diff --git a/src/libckpool.c b/src/libckpool.c
index 7e5167d0..e9f78aa4 100644
--- a/src/libckpool.c
+++ b/src/libckpool.c
@@ -15,6 +15,9 @@
 #include <fcntl.h>
 #include <netinet/in.h>
 #include <netinet/tcp.h>
+#include <stdlib.h>
+#include <stdbool.h>
+#include <string.h>
 
 #include "ckpool.h"
 #include "libckpool.h"
@@ -34,3 +37,158 @@ void keep_sockalive(int fd)
 	setsockopt(fd, SOL_TCP, TCP_KEEPIDLE, &tcp_keepidle, sizeof(tcp_keepidle));
 	setsockopt(fd, SOL_TCP, TCP_KEEPINTVL, &tcp_keepintvl, sizeof(tcp_keepintvl));
 }
+
+/* Align a size_t to 4 byte boundaries for fussy arches */
+void align_len(size_t *len)
+{
+	if (*len % 4)
+		*len += 4 - (*len % 4);
+}
+
+/* Adequate size s==len*2 + 1 must be alloced to use this variant */
+void __bin2hex(uchar *s, const uchar *p, size_t len)
+{
+	static const char hex[16] = {'0', '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9', 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f'};
+	int i;
+
+	for (i = 0; i < (int)len; i++) {
+		*s++ = hex[p[i] >> 4];
+		*s++ = hex[p[i] & 0xF];
+	}
+	*s++ = '\0';
+}
+
+/* Returns a malloced array string of a binary value of arbitrary length. The
+ * array is rounded up to a 4 byte size to appease architectures that need
+ * aligned array  sizes */
+void *bin2hex(const uchar *p, size_t len)
+{
+	size_t slen;
+	uchar *s;
+
+	slen = len * 2 + 1;
+	align_len(&slen);
+	s = calloc(slen, 1);
+	if (likely(s))
+		__bin2hex(s, p, len);
+
+	/* Returns NULL if calloc failed. */
+	return s;
+}
+
+static const int hex2bin_tbl[256] = {
+	-1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
+	-1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
+	-1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
+	 0,  1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,  7,  8,  9, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
+	-1, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
+	-1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
+	-1, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
+	-1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
+	-1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
+	-1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
+	-1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
+	-1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
+	-1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
+	-1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
+	-1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
+	-1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
+};
+
+/* Does the reverse of bin2hex but does not allocate any ram */
+bool hex2bin(uchar *p, const uchar *hexstr, size_t len)
+{
+	int nibble1, nibble2;
+	uchar idx;
+	bool ret = false;
+
+	while (*hexstr && len) {
+		if (unlikely(!hexstr[1]))
+			return ret;
+
+		idx = *hexstr++;
+		nibble1 = hex2bin_tbl[idx];
+		idx = *hexstr++;
+		nibble2 = hex2bin_tbl[idx];
+
+		if (unlikely((nibble1 < 0) || (nibble2 < 0)))
+			return ret;
+
+		*p++ = (((uchar)nibble1) << 4) | ((uchar)nibble2);
+		--len;
+	}
+
+	if (likely(len == 0 && *hexstr == 0))
+		ret = true;
+	return ret;
+}
+
+static const int b58tobin_tbl[] = {
+	-1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
+	-1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
+	-1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
+	-1,  0,  1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,  7,  8, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
+	-1,  9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, -1, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, -1,
+	22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
+	-1, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, -1, 44, 45, 46,
+	47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57
+};
+
+/* b58bin should always be at least 25 bytes long and already checked to be
+ * valid. */
+void b58tobin(uchar *b58bin, const uchar *b58)
+{
+	uint32_t c, bin32[7];
+	int len, i, j;
+	uint64_t t;
+
+	memset(bin32, 0, 7 * sizeof(uint32_t));
+	len = strlen((const char *)b58);
+	for (i = 0; i < len; i++) {
+		c = b58[i];
+		c = b58tobin_tbl[c];
+		for (j = 6; j >= 0; j--) {
+			t = ((uint64_t)bin32[j]) * 58 + c;
+			c = (t & 0x3f00000000ull) >> 32;
+			bin32[j] = t & 0xffffffffull;
+		}
+	}
+	*(b58bin++) = bin32[0] & 0xff;
+	for (i = 1; i < 7; i++) {
+		*((uint32_t *)b58bin) = htobe32(bin32[i]);
+		b58bin += sizeof(uint32_t);
+	}
+}
+
+void address_to_pubkeyhash(uchar *pkh, const uchar *addr)
+{
+	uchar b58bin[25];
+
+	memset(b58bin, 0, 25);
+	b58tobin(b58bin, addr);
+	pkh[0] = 0x76;
+	pkh[1] = 0xa9;
+	pkh[2] = 0x14;
+	memcpy(&pkh[3], &b58bin[1], 20);
+	pkh[23] = 0x88;
+	pkh[24] = 0xac;
+}
+
+/*  For encoding nHeight into coinbase, return how many bytes were used */
+int ser_number(uchar *s, int32_t val)
+{
+	int32_t *i32 = (int32_t *)&s[1];
+	int len;
+
+	if (val < 128)
+		len = 1;
+	else if (val < 16512)
+		len = 2;
+	else if (val < 2113664)
+		len = 3;
+	else
+		len = 4;
+	*i32 = htole32(val);
+	s[0] = len++;
+	return len;
+}
diff --git a/src/libckpool.h b/src/libckpool.h
index a169170c..a0b8cc76 100644
--- a/src/libckpool.h
+++ b/src/libckpool.h
@@ -12,6 +12,15 @@
 #ifndef LIBCKPOOL_H
 #define LIBCKPOOL_H
 
+#include <stdbool.h>
+
 void keep_sockalive(int fd);
+void align_len(size_t *len);
+void __bin2hex(uchar *s, const uchar *p, size_t len);
+void *bin2hex(const uchar *p, size_t len);
+bool hex2bin(uchar *p, const uchar *hexstr, size_t len);
+void b58tobin(uchar *b58bin, const uchar *b58);
+void address_to_pubkeyhash(uchar *pkh, const uchar *addr);
+int ser_number(uchar *s, int32_t val);
 
 #endif /* LIBCKPOOL_H */