diff --git a/accounts/keystore/keystore_passphrase.go b/accounts/keystore/keystore_passphrase.go
index 9a5c452c13..679fc15d69 100644
--- a/accounts/keystore/keystore_passphrase.go
+++ b/accounts/keystore/keystore_passphrase.go
@@ -182,10 +182,8 @@ func DecryptKey(keyjson []byte, auth string) (*Key, error) {
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
-	key, err := crypto.ToECDSA(keyBytes)
-	if err != nil {
-		return nil, err
-	}
+	key := crypto.ToECDSAUnsafe(keyBytes)
+
 	return &Key{
 		Id:         uuid.UUID(keyId),
 		Address:    crypto.PubkeyToAddress(key.PublicKey),
diff --git a/accounts/keystore/presale.go b/accounts/keystore/presale.go
index 2f18a64db0..ed900ad085 100644
--- a/accounts/keystore/presale.go
+++ b/accounts/keystore/presale.go
@@ -74,10 +74,8 @@ func decryptPreSaleKey(fileContent []byte, password string) (key *Key, err error
 		return nil, err
 	}
 	ethPriv := crypto.Keccak256(plainText)
-	ecKey, err := crypto.ToECDSA(ethPriv)
-	if err != nil {
-		return nil, err
-	}
+	ecKey := crypto.ToECDSAUnsafe(ethPriv)
+
 	key = &Key{
 		Id:         nil,
 		Address:    crypto.PubkeyToAddress(ecKey.PublicKey),
diff --git a/crypto/crypto.go b/crypto/crypto.go
index d38ffd0d5c..8161769d3d 100644
--- a/crypto/crypto.go
+++ b/crypto/crypto.go
@@ -68,9 +68,6 @@ func Keccak512(data ...[]byte) []byte {
 	return d.Sum(nil)
 }
 
-// Deprecated: For backward compatibility as other packages depend on these
-func Sha3Hash(data ...[]byte) common.Hash { return Keccak256Hash(data...) }
-
 // Creates an ethereum address given the bytes and the nonce
 func CreateAddress(b common.Address, nonce uint64) common.Address {
 	data, _ := rlp.EncodeToBytes([]interface{}{b, nonce})
@@ -79,9 +76,24 @@ func CreateAddress(b common.Address, nonce uint64) common.Address {
 
 // ToECDSA creates a private key with the given D value.
 func ToECDSA(d []byte) (*ecdsa.PrivateKey, error) {
+	return toECDSA(d, true)
+}
+
+// ToECDSAUnsafe blidly converts a binary blob to a private key. It should almost
+// never be used unless you are sure the input is valid and want to avoid hitting
+// errors due to bad origin encoding (0 prefixes cut off).
+func ToECDSAUnsafe(d []byte) *ecdsa.PrivateKey {
+	priv, _ := toECDSA(d, false)
+	return priv
+}
+
+// toECDSA creates a private key with the given D value. The strict parameter
+// controls whether the key's length should be enforced at the curve size or
+// it can also accept legacy encodings (0 prefixes).
+func toECDSA(d []byte, strict bool) (*ecdsa.PrivateKey, error) {
 	priv := new(ecdsa.PrivateKey)
 	priv.PublicKey.Curve = S256()
-	if 8*len(d) != priv.Params().BitSize {
+	if strict && 8*len(d) != priv.Params().BitSize {
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid length, need %d bits", priv.Params().BitSize)
 	}
 	priv.D = new(big.Int).SetBytes(d)
@@ -89,11 +101,12 @@ func ToECDSA(d []byte) (*ecdsa.PrivateKey, error) {
 	return priv, nil
 }
 
-func FromECDSA(prv *ecdsa.PrivateKey) []byte {
-	if prv == nil {
+// FromECDSA exports a private key into a binary dump.
+func FromECDSA(priv *ecdsa.PrivateKey) []byte {
+	if priv == nil {
 		return nil
 	}
-	return math.PaddedBigBytes(prv.D, 32)
+	return math.PaddedBigBytes(priv.D, priv.Params().BitSize/8)
 }
 
 func ToECDSAPub(pub []byte) *ecdsa.PublicKey {
@@ -121,7 +134,6 @@ func HexToECDSA(hexkey string) (*ecdsa.PrivateKey, error) {
 }
 
 // LoadECDSA loads a secp256k1 private key from the given file.
-// The key data is expected to be hex-encoded.
 func LoadECDSA(file string) (*ecdsa.PrivateKey, error) {
 	buf := make([]byte, 64)
 	fd, err := os.Open(file)
diff --git a/crypto/crypto_test.go b/crypto/crypto_test.go
index e518ac22d8..92302948ed 100644
--- a/crypto/crypto_test.go
+++ b/crypto/crypto_test.go
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ var testPrivHex = "289c2857d4598e37fb9647507e47a309d6133539bf21a8b9cb6df88fd5232
 // These tests are sanity checks.
 // They should ensure that we don't e.g. use Sha3-224 instead of Sha3-256
 // and that the sha3 library uses keccak-f permutation.
-func TestSha3Hash(t *testing.T) {
+func TestKeccak256Hash(t *testing.T) {
 	msg := []byte("abc")
 	exp, _ := hex.DecodeString("4e03657aea45a94fc7d47ba826c8d667c0d1e6e33a64a036ec44f58fa12d6c45")
 	checkhash(t, "Sha3-256-array", func(in []byte) []byte { h := Keccak256Hash(in); return h[:] }, msg, exp)