diff --git a/tendermint/src/merkle.rs b/tendermint/src/merkle.rs
index f0b28efff..f34f0cc5f 100644
--- a/tendermint/src/merkle.rs
+++ b/tendermint/src/merkle.rs
@@ -8,16 +8,23 @@ pub const HASH_SIZE: usize = 32;
 /// Hash is the output of the cryptographic digest function
 pub type Hash = [u8; HASH_SIZE];
 
-/// Compute a simple Merkle root from the arbitrary sized byte slices
-pub fn simple_hash_from_byte_slices(byte_slices: &[&[u8]]) -> Hash {
+/// Compute a simple Merkle root from vectors of arbitrary byte vectors.
+/// The leaves of the tree are the bytes of the given byte vectors in
+/// the given order.
+pub fn simple_hash_from_byte_vectors(byte_vecs: Vec<Vec<u8>>) -> Hash {
+    simple_hash_from_byte_slices_inner(byte_vecs.as_slice())
+}
+
+// recurse into subtrees
+fn simple_hash_from_byte_slices_inner(byte_slices: &[Vec<u8>]) -> Hash {
     let length = byte_slices.len();
     match length {
         0 => [0; HASH_SIZE],
-        1 => leaf_hash(byte_slices[0]),
+        1 => leaf_hash(byte_slices[0].as_slice()),
         _ => {
             let k = get_split_point(length);
-            let left = simple_hash_from_byte_slices(&byte_slices[..k]);
-            let right = simple_hash_from_byte_slices(&byte_slices[k..]);
+            let left = simple_hash_from_byte_slices_inner(&byte_slices[..k]);
+            let right = simple_hash_from_byte_slices_inner(&byte_slices[k..]);
             inner_hash(&left, &right)
         }
     }
@@ -90,8 +97,9 @@ mod tests {
         let empty_leaf_root_hex =
             "6e340b9cffb37a989ca544e6bb780a2c78901d3fb33738768511a30617afa01d";
         let empty_leaf_root = &hex::decode(empty_leaf_root_hex).unwrap();
-        let empty_tree: &[&[u8]] = &[&[]];
-        let root = simple_hash_from_byte_slices(empty_tree);
+        let empty_tree: Vec<Vec<u8>> = vec![vec![]; 1];
+
+        let root = simple_hash_from_byte_vectors(empty_tree);
         assert_eq!(empty_leaf_root, &root);
     }
 
@@ -101,8 +109,9 @@ mod tests {
         let leaf_string = "L123456";
 
         let leaf_root = &hex::decode(leaf_root_hex).unwrap();
-        let leaf_tree: &[&[u8]] = &[leaf_string.as_bytes()];
-        let root = simple_hash_from_byte_slices(leaf_tree);
+        let leaf_tree: Vec<Vec<u8>> = vec![leaf_string.as_bytes().to_vec(); 1];
+
+        let root = simple_hash_from_byte_vectors(leaf_tree);
         assert_eq!(leaf_root, &root);
     }
 
diff --git a/tendermint/src/validator.rs b/tendermint/src/validator.rs
index f7c2dc8e5..f936de8a9 100644
--- a/tendermint/src/validator.rs
+++ b/tendermint/src/validator.rs
@@ -21,18 +21,12 @@ impl Set {
 
     /// Compute the Merkle root of the validator set
     pub fn hash(self) -> merkle::Hash {
-        // We need to get from Vec<Info> to &[&[u8]] so we can call simple_hash_from_byte_slices.
-        // This looks like: Vec<Info> -> Vec<Vec<u8>> -> Vec<&[u8]> -> &[&[u8]]
-        // Can we simplify this?
-        // Perhaps simple_hash_from_byteslices should take Vec<Vec<u8>> directly ?
         let validator_bytes: Vec<Vec<u8>> = self
             .validators
             .into_iter()
             .map(|x| x.hash_bytes())
             .collect();
-        let validator_byteslices: Vec<&[u8]> =
-            (&validator_bytes).iter().map(|x| x.as_slice()).collect();
-        merkle::simple_hash_from_byte_slices(validator_byteslices.as_slice())
+        merkle::simple_hash_from_byte_vectors(validator_bytes)
     }
 }