diff --git a/db/rocksdb.go b/db/rocksdb.go
index 885b57d1..127b0cd8 100644
--- a/db/rocksdb.go
+++ b/db/rocksdb.go
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import (
 	"bytes"
 	"encoding/binary"
 	"encoding/hex"
+	"math/big"
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
 	"time"
@@ -1072,3 +1073,62 @@ func unpackVarint(buf []byte) (int32, int) {
 	i, ofs := vlq.Int(buf)
 	return int32(i), ofs
 }
+
+const (
+	// number of bits in a big.Word
+	wordBits = 32 << (uint64(^big.Word(0)) >> 63)
+	// number of bytes in a big.Word
+	wordBytes = wordBits / 8
+	// max packed bigint words
+	maxPackedBigintWords = (256 - wordBytes) / wordBytes
+)
+
+// big int is packed in BigEndian order without memory allocation as 1 byte length followed by bytes of big int
+// number of written bytes is returned
+// limitation: bigints longer than 248 bytes are truncated to 248 bytes
+// caution: buffer must be big enough to hold the packed big int, buffer 249 bytes big is always safe
+func packBigint(bi *big.Int, buf []byte) int {
+	w := bi.Bits()
+	lw := len(w)
+	// zero returns only one byte - zero length
+	if lw == 0 {
+		buf[0] = 0
+		return 1
+	}
+	// pack the most significant word in a special way - skip leading zeros
+	w0 := w[lw-1]
+	fb := 8
+	mask := big.Word(0xff) << (wordBits - 8)
+	for w0&mask == 0 {
+		fb--
+		mask >>= 8
+	}
+	for i := fb; i > 0; i-- {
+		buf[i] = byte(w0)
+		w0 >>= 8
+	}
+	// if the big int is too big (> 2^1984), the number of bytes would not fit to 1 byte
+	// in this case, truncate the number, it is not expected to work with this big numbers as amounts
+	s := 0
+	if lw > maxPackedBigintWords {
+		s = lw - maxPackedBigintWords
+	}
+	// pack the rest of the words in reverse order
+	for j := lw - 2; j >= s; j-- {
+		d := w[j]
+		for i := fb + wordBytes; i > fb; i-- {
+			buf[i] = byte(d)
+			d >>= 8
+		}
+		fb += wordBytes
+	}
+	buf[0] = byte(fb)
+	return fb + 1
+}
+
+func unpackBigint(buf []byte) (big.Int, int) {
+	var r big.Int
+	l := int(buf[0]) + 1
+	r.SetBytes(buf[1:l])
+	return r, l
+}
diff --git a/db/rocksdb_test.go b/db/rocksdb_test.go
index 52be1c5d..f34ecefb 100644
--- a/db/rocksdb_test.go
+++ b/db/rocksdb_test.go
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-// +build unittest
+// build unittest
 
 package db
 
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import (
 	"encoding/hex"
 	"fmt"
 	"io/ioutil"
+	"math/big"
 	"os"
 	"reflect"
 	"sort"
@@ -723,3 +724,93 @@ func Test_unpackBlockAddresses(t *testing.T) {
 		})
 	}
 }
+
+func Test_packBigint_unpackBigint(t *testing.T) {
+	bigbig1, _ := big.NewInt(0).SetString("123456789123456789012345", 10)
+	bigbig2, _ := big.NewInt(0).SetString("12345678912345678901234512389012345123456789123456789012345123456789123456789012345", 10)
+	bigbigbig := big.NewInt(0)
+	bigbigbig.Mul(bigbig2, bigbig2)
+	bigbigbig.Mul(bigbigbig, bigbigbig)
+	bigbigbig.Mul(bigbigbig, bigbigbig)
+	tests := []struct {
+		name      string
+		bi        *big.Int
+		buf       []byte
+		toobiglen int
+	}{
+		{
+			name: "0",
+			bi:   big.NewInt(0),
+			buf:  make([]byte, 249),
+		},
+		{
+			name: "1",
+			bi:   big.NewInt(1),
+			buf:  make([]byte, 249),
+		},
+		{
+			name: "54321",
+			bi:   big.NewInt(54321),
+			buf:  make([]byte, 249),
+		},
+		{
+			name: "12345678",
+			bi:   big.NewInt(12345678),
+			buf:  make([]byte, 249),
+		},
+		{
+			name: "123456789123456789",
+			bi:   big.NewInt(123456789123456789),
+			buf:  make([]byte, 249),
+		},
+		{
+			name: "bigbig1",
+			bi:   bigbig1,
+			buf:  make([]byte, 249),
+		},
+		{
+			name: "bigbig2",
+			bi:   bigbig2,
+			buf:  make([]byte, 249),
+		},
+		{
+			name:      "bigbigbig",
+			bi:        bigbigbig,
+			buf:       make([]byte, 249),
+			toobiglen: 242,
+		},
+	}
+	for _, tt := range tests {
+		t.Run(tt.name, func(t *testing.T) {
+			// packBigint
+			got := packBigint(tt.bi, tt.buf)
+			if tt.toobiglen == 0 {
+				// create buffer that we expect
+				bb := tt.bi.Bytes()
+				want := append([]byte(nil), byte(len(bb)))
+				want = append(want, bb...)
+				if got != len(want) {
+					t.Errorf("packBigint() = %v, want %v", got, len(want))
+				}
+				for i := 0; i < got; i++ {
+					if tt.buf[i] != want[i] {
+						t.Errorf("packBigint() buf = %v, want %v", tt.buf[:got], want)
+						break
+					}
+				}
+				// unpackBigint
+				got1, got2 := unpackBigint(tt.buf)
+				if got2 != len(want) {
+					t.Errorf("unpackBigint() = %v, want %v", got2, len(want))
+				}
+				if tt.bi.Cmp(&got1) != 0 {
+					t.Errorf("unpackBigint() = %v, want %v", got1, tt.bi)
+				}
+			} else {
+				if got != tt.toobiglen {
+					t.Errorf("packBigint() = %v, want toobiglen %v", got, tt.toobiglen)
+				}
+			}
+		})
+	}
+}