diff --git a/consensus/serde_utils/src/hex_vec.rs b/consensus/serde_utils/src/hex_vec.rs
index 09c6b9f932..60d6494434 100644
--- a/consensus/serde_utils/src/hex_vec.rs
+++ b/consensus/serde_utils/src/hex_vec.rs
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 use crate::hex::PrefixedHexVisitor;
 use serde::{Deserializer, Serializer};
 
-pub fn serialize<S>(bytes: &Vec<u8>, serializer: S) -> Result<S::Ok, S::Error>
+pub fn serialize<S>(bytes: &[u8], serializer: S) -> Result<S::Ok, S::Error>
 where
     S: Serializer,
 {
diff --git a/consensus/serde_utils/src/u64_hex_be.rs b/consensus/serde_utils/src/u64_hex_be.rs
index ce6941c937..145292f8c3 100644
--- a/consensus/serde_utils/src/u64_hex_be.rs
+++ b/consensus/serde_utils/src/u64_hex_be.rs
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ where
     let raw = hex::encode(num.to_be_bytes());
     let trimmed = raw.trim_start_matches('0');
 
-    let hex = if trimmed == "" { "0" } else { &trimmed };
+    let hex = if trimmed.is_empty() { "0" } else { &trimmed };
 
     serializer.serialize_str(&format!("0x{}", &hex))
 }