diff --git a/beacon_chain/utils/boolean-bitfield/src/lib.rs b/beacon_chain/utils/boolean-bitfield/src/lib.rs
index fadb47083..98518d70c 100644
--- a/beacon_chain/utils/boolean-bitfield/src/lib.rs
+++ b/beacon_chain/utils/boolean-bitfield/src/lib.rs
@@ -3,11 +3,12 @@ extern crate ssz;
 
 use bit_vec::BitVec;
 
+use std::cmp;
 use std::default;
 
 /// A BooleanBitfield represents a set of booleans compactly stored as a vector of bits.
 /// The BooleanBitfield is given a fixed size during construction. Reads outside of the current size return an out-of-bounds error. Writes outside of the current size expand the size of the set.
-#[derive(Debug, Clone, PartialEq)]
+#[derive(Debug, Clone)]
 pub struct BooleanBitfield(BitVec);
 
 /// Error represents some reason a request against a bitfield was not satisfied
@@ -104,6 +105,14 @@ impl default::Default for BooleanBitfield {
     }
 }
 
+impl cmp::PartialEq for BooleanBitfield {
+    /// Determines equality by comparing the `ssz` encoding of the two candidates.
+    /// This method ensures that the presence of high-order (empty) bits in the highest byte do not exclude equality when they are in fact representing the same information.
+    fn eq(&self, other: &Self) -> bool {
+        ssz::ssz_encode(self) == ssz::ssz_encode(other)
+    }
+}
+
 impl ssz::Encodable for BooleanBitfield {
     // ssz_append encodes Self according to the `ssz` spec.
     fn ssz_append(&self, s: &mut ssz::SszStream) {