diff --git a/state/state.go b/state/state.go
index 56b6354f5f6..f851bf84e01 100644
--- a/state/state.go
+++ b/state/state.go
@@ -295,7 +295,6 @@ func (state State) MakeBlock(
 		proposerAddress, &encryptedRandom, implicitHash,
 	)
 
-	fmt.Printf("------------ HEADER HASH : %+v\n", block.Header.Hash())
 	return block
 }
 
diff --git a/state/validation.go b/state/validation.go
index b79b0d05491..81dbc2f315a 100644
--- a/state/validation.go
+++ b/state/validation.go
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ package state
 
 import (
 	"bytes"
+	"crypto/sha256"
 	"encoding/hex"
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
@@ -125,7 +126,10 @@ func validateBlock(state State, block *types.Block) error {
 		return fmt.Errorf("failed to get implicit hash: %w", err)
 	}
 	if !bytes.Equal(block.Header.ImplicitHash, expectedImplicitHash) {
-		return fmt.Errorf("implicit_hash mismatch: expected %X, got %X", hex.EncodeToString(expectedImplicitHash), hex.EncodeToString(block.Header.ImplicitHash))
+		emptySha256 := sha256.Sum256([]byte{})
+		if !(bytes.Equal(block.Header.ImplicitHash, []byte{}) && bytes.Equal(expectedImplicitHash, emptySha256[:])) {
+			return fmt.Errorf("implicit_hash mismatch: expected %X, got %X", hex.EncodeToString(expectedImplicitHash), hex.EncodeToString(block.Header.ImplicitHash))
+		}
 	}
 
 	// Validate block Time