diff --git a/integration/index.js b/integration/index.js
index 2eb4160b..04849e6c 100644
--- a/integration/index.js
+++ b/integration/index.js
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ describe('Basic Functionality', function() {
       var block = bitcore.Block.fromString(data);
       it('block ' + block.hash, function(done) {
         bitcoind.getBlock(block.hash, function(err, response) {
-          assert(response === data, 'incorrect block data for ' + block.hash);
+          assert(response.toString('hex') === data, 'incorrect block data for ' + block.hash);
           done();
         });
       });
diff --git a/src/bitcoindjs.cc b/src/bitcoindjs.cc
index 8b11078d..0c0c6bc5 100644
--- a/src/bitcoindjs.cc
+++ b/src/bitcoindjs.cc
@@ -869,7 +869,7 @@ async_get_block(uv_work_t *req) {
     fread(&size, sizeof(uint32_t), 1, blockFile);
 
     // Read block
-    char buffer[size];
+    char* buffer = (char *)malloc(sizeof(char) * size);
     fread((void *)buffer, sizeof(char), size, blockFile);
     fclose(blockFile);