diff --git a/gnark.go b/gnark.go
index 45f5829..004eeeb 100644
--- a/gnark.go
+++ b/gnark.go
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ func (t *Tree) GenerateGnarkVerifierProof(k []byte) (*GnarkVerifierProof, error)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
-	// convert the siblings to big.Int swaping the endianess
+	// convert the siblings to big.Int swapping the endianess
 	bigSiblings := make([]*big.Int, len(unpackedSiblings))
 	for i := range bigSiblings {
 		bigSiblings[i] = BytesToBigInt(unpackedSiblings[i])
diff --git a/tree_big.go b/tree_big.go
index a5e8723..a12a4a9 100644
--- a/tree_big.go
+++ b/tree_big.go
@@ -176,7 +176,7 @@ func (t *Tree) leafToBigInts(key, value, serializedBigInts []byte) (*big.Int, []
 	// reverse the process of bigints encoding
 	bigints := deserializeBigInts(serializedBigInts)
 	// reencode the leaf value of the tree to check if it matches the value
-	bigintsHash, err := hashBigInts(t.HashFunction(), bigints...)
+	bigintsHash, err := HashBigInts(t.HashFunction(), bigints...)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, nil, err
 	}
@@ -253,18 +253,18 @@ func bigIntsToLeaf(hFn HashFunction, keyLen int, key *big.Int, bigints []*big.In
 		return nil, nil, nil, err
 	}
 	// calculate the value used to build the tree
-	bValue, err = hashBigInts(hFn, bigints...)
+	bValue, err = HashBigInts(hFn, bigints...)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, nil, nil, err
 	}
 	return bKey, bValue, serializedBigInts, nil
 }
 
-// hashBigInts hashes the bytes of the big.Int values
+// HashBigInts hashes the bytes of the big.Int values
 // using the hash function of the tree. The resulting hash can be used as the leaf value
-func hashBigInts(hFn HashFunction, bigints ...*big.Int) ([]byte, error) {
-	chunks := make([][]byte, len(bigints))
-	for _, v := range bigints {
+func HashBigInts(hFn HashFunction, values ...*big.Int) ([]byte, error) {
+	chunks := make([][]byte, len(values))
+	for _, v := range values {
 		value := hFn.SafeBigInt(v)
 		if value == nil {
 			return nil, fmt.Errorf("value cannot be nil")
diff --git a/utils.go b/utils.go
index e88c917..2931a85 100644
--- a/utils.go
+++ b/utils.go
@@ -11,21 +11,21 @@ func SwapEndianness(b []byte) []byte {
 	for i := range b {
 		o[len(b)-1-i] = b[i]
 	}
-	return ExplicitZero(o)
+	return o
 }
 
 // BigIntToBytes converts a *big.Int into a byte array in Little-Endian
 func BigIntToBytes(blen int, bi *big.Int) []byte {
 	// TODO make the length depending on the tree.hashFunction.Len()
 	b := make([]byte, blen)
-	copy(b[:], SwapEndianness(bi.Bytes()))
+	copy(b[:], ExplicitZero(SwapEndianness(bi.Bytes())))
 	return b[:]
 }
 
 // BytesToBigInt converts a byte array in Little-Endian representation into
 // *big.Int
 func BytesToBigInt(b []byte) *big.Int {
-	return new(big.Int).SetBytes(SwapEndianness(b))
+	return new(big.Int).SetBytes(ExplicitZero(SwapEndianness(b)))
 }
 
 // ExplicitZero returns a byte slice with a single zero byte if the input slice