diff --git a/src/baseTrie.ts b/src/baseTrie.ts
index b23785e..fbb660f 100644
--- a/src/baseTrie.ts
+++ b/src/baseTrie.ts
@@ -88,6 +88,13 @@ export class Trie {
     return !!value
   }
 
+  /**
+   * BaseTrie has no checkpointing so return false
+   */
+  get isCheckpoint() {
+    return false
+  }
+
   /**
    * Gets a value given a `key`
    * @param key - the key to search for
@@ -611,12 +618,23 @@ export class Trie {
     const rlpNode = node.serialize()
 
     if (rlpNode.length >= 32 || topLevel) {
-      const hashRoot = node.hash()
-      opStack.push({
-        type: 'put',
-        key: hashRoot,
-        value: rlpNode,
-      })
+      // Do not use TrieNode.hash() here otherwise serialize()
+      // is applied twice (performance)
+      const hashRoot = keccak(rlpNode)
+
+      if (remove && this.isCheckpoint) {
+        opStack.push({
+          type: 'del',
+          key: hashRoot,
+        })
+      } else {
+        opStack.push({
+          type: 'put',
+          key: hashRoot,
+          value: rlpNode,
+        })
+      }
+
       return hashRoot
     }
 
diff --git a/src/checkpointTrie.ts b/src/checkpointTrie.ts
index b47dd3f..26abb29 100644
--- a/src/checkpointTrie.ts
+++ b/src/checkpointTrie.ts
@@ -1,8 +1,7 @@
 import { Trie as BaseTrie } from './baseTrie'
 import { ScratchReadStream } from './scratchReadStream'
 import { ScratchDB } from './scratch'
-import { DB, BatchDBOp } from './db'
-import { TrieNode } from './trieNode'
+import { DB } from './db'
 const WriteStream = require('level-ws')
 
 /**
@@ -139,38 +138,4 @@ export class CheckpointTrie extends BaseTrie {
     trie.db = scratch
     return new ScratchReadStream(trie)
   }
-
-  /**
-   * Formats node to be saved by `levelup.batch`.
-   * @private
-   * @param node - the node to format.
-   * @param topLevel - if the node is at the top level.
-   * @param opStack - the opStack to push the node's data.
-   * @param remove - whether to remove the node (only used for CheckpointTrie).
-   * @returns The node's hash used as the key or the rawNode.
-   */
-  _formatNode(node: TrieNode, topLevel: boolean, opStack: BatchDBOp[], remove: boolean = false) {
-    const rlpNode = node.serialize()
-
-    if (rlpNode.length >= 32 || topLevel) {
-      const hashRoot = node.hash()
-
-      if (remove && this.isCheckpoint) {
-        opStack.push({
-          type: 'del',
-          key: hashRoot,
-        })
-      } else {
-        opStack.push({
-          type: 'put',
-          key: hashRoot,
-          value: rlpNode,
-        })
-      }
-
-      return hashRoot
-    }
-
-    return node.raw()
-  }
 }