diff --git a/trie/database.go b/trie/database.go
index 321b4f895..e20f7ef90 100644
--- a/trie/database.go
+++ b/trie/database.go
@@ -240,17 +240,6 @@ func (db *Database) Dereference(root common.Hash) error {
 	return nil
 }
 
-// Node retrieves the rlp-encoded node blob with provided node hash. It's
-// only supported by hash-based database and will return an error for others.
-// Note, this function should be deprecated once ETH66 is deprecated.
-func (db *Database) Node(hash common.Hash) ([]byte, error) {
-	hdb, ok := db.backend.(*hashdb.Database)
-	if !ok {
-		return nil, errors.New("not supported")
-	}
-	return hdb.Node(hash)
-}
-
 // Recover rollbacks the database to a specified historical point. The state is
 // supported as the rollback destination only if it's canonical state and the
 // corresponding trie histories are existent. It's only supported by path-based
diff --git a/trie/triedb/hashdb/database.go b/trie/triedb/hashdb/database.go
index 764ab24ec..e45ccdba3 100644
--- a/trie/triedb/hashdb/database.go
+++ b/trie/triedb/hashdb/database.go
@@ -82,11 +82,6 @@ var Defaults = &Config{
 // Database is an intermediate write layer between the trie data structures and
 // the disk database. The aim is to accumulate trie writes in-memory and only
 // periodically flush a couple tries to disk, garbage collecting the remainder.
-//
-// Note, the trie Database is **not** thread safe in its mutations, but it **is**
-// thread safe in providing individual, independent node access. The rationale
-// behind this split design is to provide read access to RPC handlers and sync
-// servers even while the trie is executing expensive garbage collection.
 type Database struct {
 	diskdb   ethdb.Database // Persistent storage for matured trie nodes
 	resolver ChildResolver  // The handler to resolve children of nodes
@@ -113,7 +108,7 @@ type Database struct {
 // cachedNode is all the information we know about a single cached trie node
 // in the memory database write layer.
 type cachedNode struct {
-	node      []byte                   // Encoded node blob
+	node      []byte                   // Encoded node blob, immutable
 	parents   uint32                   // Number of live nodes referencing this one
 	external  map[common.Hash]struct{} // The set of external children
 	flushPrev common.Hash              // Previous node in the flush-list
@@ -152,9 +147,9 @@ func New(diskdb ethdb.Database, config *Config, resolver ChildResolver) *Databas
 	}
 }
 
-// insert inserts a simplified trie node into the memory database.
-// All nodes inserted by this function will be reference tracked
-// and in theory should only used for **trie nodes** insertion.
+// insert inserts a trie node into the memory database. All nodes inserted by
+// this function will be reference tracked. This function assumes the lock is
+// already held.
 func (db *Database) insert(hash common.Hash, node []byte) {
 	// If the node's already cached, skip
 	if _, ok := db.dirties[hash]; ok {
@@ -183,9 +178,9 @@ func (db *Database) insert(hash common.Hash, node []byte) {
 	db.dirtiesSize += common.StorageSize(common.HashLength + len(node))
 }
 
-// Node retrieves an encoded cached trie node from memory. If it cannot be found
+// node retrieves an encoded cached trie node from memory. If it cannot be found
 // cached, the method queries the persistent database for the content.
-func (db *Database) Node(hash common.Hash) ([]byte, error) {
+func (db *Database) node(hash common.Hash) ([]byte, error) {
 	// It doesn't make sense to retrieve the metaroot
 	if hash == (common.Hash{}) {
 		return nil, errors.New("not found")
@@ -198,11 +193,14 @@ func (db *Database) Node(hash common.Hash) ([]byte, error) {
 			return enc, nil
 		}
 	}
-	// Retrieve the node from the dirty cache if available
+	// Retrieve the node from the dirty cache if available.
 	db.lock.RLock()
 	dirty := db.dirties[hash]
 	db.lock.RUnlock()
 
+	// Return the cached node if it's found in the dirty set.
+	// The dirty.node field is immutable and safe to read it
+	// even without lock guard.
 	if dirty != nil {
 		memcacheDirtyHitMeter.Mark(1)
 		memcacheDirtyReadMeter.Mark(int64(len(dirty.node)))
@@ -223,20 +221,6 @@ func (db *Database) Node(hash common.Hash) ([]byte, error) {
 	return nil, errors.New("not found")
 }
 
-// Nodes retrieves the hashes of all the nodes cached within the memory database.
-// This method is extremely expensive and should only be used to validate internal
-// states in test code.
-func (db *Database) Nodes() []common.Hash {
-	db.lock.RLock()
-	defer db.lock.RUnlock()
-
-	var hashes = make([]common.Hash, 0, len(db.dirties))
-	for hash := range db.dirties {
-		hashes = append(hashes, hash)
-	}
-	return hashes
-}
-
 // Reference adds a new reference from a parent node to a child node.
 // This function is used to add reference between internal trie node
 // and external node(e.g. storage trie root), all internal trie nodes
@@ -344,16 +328,16 @@ func (db *Database) dereference(hash common.Hash) {
 
 // Cap iteratively flushes old but still referenced trie nodes until the total
 // memory usage goes below the given threshold.
-//
-// Note, this method is a non-synchronized mutator. It is unsafe to call this
-// concurrently with other mutators.
 func (db *Database) Cap(limit common.StorageSize) error {
+	db.lock.Lock()
+	defer db.lock.Unlock()
+
 	// Create a database batch to flush persistent data out. It is important that
 	// outside code doesn't see an inconsistent state (referenced data removed from
 	// memory cache during commit but not yet in persistent storage). This is ensured
 	// by only uncaching existing data when the database write finalizes.
-	nodes, storage, start := len(db.dirties), db.dirtiesSize, time.Now()
 	batch := db.diskdb.NewBatch()
+	nodes, storage, start := len(db.dirties), db.dirtiesSize, time.Now()
 
 	// db.dirtiesSize only contains the useful data in the cache, but when reporting
 	// the total memory consumption, the maintenance metadata is also needed to be
@@ -391,9 +375,6 @@ func (db *Database) Cap(limit common.StorageSize) error {
 		return err
 	}
 	// Write successful, clear out the flushed data
-	db.lock.Lock()
-	defer db.lock.Unlock()
-
 	for db.oldest != oldest {
 		node := db.dirties[db.oldest]
 		delete(db.dirties, db.oldest)
@@ -424,10 +405,10 @@ func (db *Database) Cap(limit common.StorageSize) error {
 // Commit iterates over all the children of a particular node, writes them out
 // to disk, forcefully tearing down all references in both directions. As a side
 // effect, all pre-images accumulated up to this point are also written.
-//
-// Note, this method is a non-synchronized mutator. It is unsafe to call this
-// concurrently with other mutators.
 func (db *Database) Commit(node common.Hash, report bool) error {
+	db.lock.Lock()
+	defer db.lock.Unlock()
+
 	// Create a database batch to flush persistent data out. It is important that
 	// outside code doesn't see an inconsistent state (referenced data removed from
 	// memory cache during commit but not yet in persistent storage). This is ensured
@@ -449,8 +430,6 @@ func (db *Database) Commit(node common.Hash, report bool) error {
 		return err
 	}
 	// Uncache any leftovers in the last batch
-	db.lock.Lock()
-	defer db.lock.Unlock()
 	if err := batch.Replay(uncacher); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
@@ -499,13 +478,11 @@ func (db *Database) commit(hash common.Hash, batch ethdb.Batch, uncacher *cleane
 		if err := batch.Write(); err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
-		db.lock.Lock()
 		err := batch.Replay(uncacher)
-		batch.Reset()
-		db.lock.Unlock()
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
+		batch.Reset()
 	}
 	return nil
 }
@@ -574,7 +551,7 @@ func (db *Database) Initialized(genesisRoot common.Hash) bool {
 func (db *Database) Update(root common.Hash, parent common.Hash, block uint64, nodes *trienode.MergedNodeSet, states *triestate.Set) error {
 	// Ensure the parent state is present and signal a warning if not.
 	if parent != types.EmptyRootHash {
-		if blob, _ := db.Node(parent); len(blob) == 0 {
+		if blob, _ := db.node(parent); len(blob) == 0 {
 			log.Error("parent state is not present")
 		}
 	}
@@ -655,7 +632,7 @@ func (db *Database) Scheme() string {
 // Reader retrieves a node reader belonging to the given state root.
 // An error will be returned if the requested state is not available.
 func (db *Database) Reader(root common.Hash) (*reader, error) {
-	if _, err := db.Node(root); err != nil {
+	if _, err := db.node(root); err != nil {
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("state %#x is not available, %v", root, err)
 	}
 	return &reader{db: db}, nil
@@ -666,9 +643,9 @@ type reader struct {
 	db *Database
 }
 
-// Node retrieves the trie node with the given node hash.
-// No error will be returned if the node is not found.
+// Node retrieves the trie node with the given node hash. No error will be
+// returned if the node is not found.
 func (reader *reader) Node(owner common.Hash, path []byte, hash common.Hash) ([]byte, error) {
-	blob, _ := reader.db.Node(hash)
+	blob, _ := reader.db.node(hash)
 	return blob, nil
 }