diff --git a/bench2/Benchmark/Nockma/Encoding/ByteString.hs b/bench2/Benchmark/Nockma/Encoding/ByteString.hs
index f471e47b30..722ba88510 100644
--- a/bench2/Benchmark/Nockma/Encoding/ByteString.hs
+++ b/bench2/Benchmark/Nockma/Encoding/ByteString.hs
@@ -10,10 +10,17 @@ randomBytes numBytes = do
   sg <- getStdGen
   return (fst (genByteString numBytes sg))
 
+testBytesSize :: Int
+testBytesSize = 250000
+
 bm :: Benchmark
 bm =
   bgroup
     "ByteString Encoding to/from integer"
-    [ env (randomBytes 250000) (\bs -> bench "encode bytes to integer" (nf Encoding.encodeByteString bs)),
-      env (Encoding.encodeByteString <$> randomBytes 250000) (\i -> bench "decode bytes from integer" (nf Encoding.decodeByteString i))
+    [ env
+        (randomBytes testBytesSize)
+        (\bs -> bench "encode bytes to integer" (nf Encoding.encodeByteString bs)),
+      env
+        (Encoding.encodeByteString <$> randomBytes testBytesSize)
+        (\i -> bench "decode bytes from integer" (nf (Encoding.decodeByteStringWithDefault (error "failed to decode")) i))
     ]
diff --git a/src/Juvix/Compiler/Core/Evaluator.hs b/src/Juvix/Compiler/Core/Evaluator.hs
index 0c9bff3f60..21bc538477 100644
--- a/src/Juvix/Compiler/Core/Evaluator.hs
+++ b/src/Juvix/Compiler/Core/Evaluator.hs
@@ -497,13 +497,20 @@ geval opts herr tab env0 = eval' env0
 
         -- Deserialize a Integer, serialized using `serializeInteger` to a Node
         deserializeFromInteger :: Integer -> Node
-        deserializeFromInteger = deserializeNode . Encoding.decodeByteString
+        deserializeFromInteger = deserializeNode . decodeByteString
         {-# INLINE deserializeFromInteger #-}
 
         serializeToInteger :: Node -> Integer
         serializeToInteger = Encoding.encodeByteString . serializeNode
         {-# INLINE serializeToInteger #-}
 
+        decodeByteString :: Integer -> ByteString
+        decodeByteString = Encoding.decodeByteStringWithDefault decodeErr
+          where
+            decodeErr :: ByteString
+            decodeErr = err "failed to decode Integer"
+        {-# INLINE decodeByteString #-}
+
         sign :: Node -> ByteString -> Node
         sign !messageNode !secretKeyBs =
           let !message = serializeNode messageNode
diff --git a/src/Juvix/Compiler/Nockma/Encoding/Base.hs b/src/Juvix/Compiler/Nockma/Encoding/Base.hs
index e76c7ac17f..eed92d717f 100644
--- a/src/Juvix/Compiler/Nockma/Encoding/Base.hs
+++ b/src/Juvix/Compiler/Nockma/Encoding/Base.hs
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ module Juvix.Compiler.Nockma.Encoding.Base where
 
 import Data.Bit as Bit
 import Data.Bits
-import Data.Vector.Unboxed qualified as U
 import Juvix.Compiler.Nockma.Encoding.Effect.BitReader
 import Juvix.Compiler.Nockma.Encoding.Effect.BitWriter
 import Juvix.Prelude.Base
@@ -12,33 +11,28 @@ import Juvix.Prelude.Base
 writeIntegral :: forall a r. (Integral a, Member BitWriter r) => a -> Sem r ()
 writeIntegral x
   | x < 0 = error "integerToVectorBits: negative integers are not supported in this implementation"
-  | otherwise = unfoldBits (fromIntegral x)
+  | otherwise = unfoldBits 0 (fromIntegral x)
   where
-    unfoldBits :: Integer -> Sem r ()
-    unfoldBits n
-      | n == 0 = return ()
-      | otherwise = writeBit (Bit (testBit n 0)) <> unfoldBits (n `shiftR` 1)
+    len = bitLength x
 
-integerToVectorBits :: (Integral a) => a -> Bit.Vector Bit
-integerToVectorBits = run . execBitWriter . writeIntegral
+    unfoldBits :: Int -> Integer -> Sem r ()
+    unfoldBits idx n
+      | idx == len = return ()
+      | otherwise = writeBit (Bit (testBit n idx)) <> unfoldBits (idx + 1) n
 
 -- | Computes the number of bits required to store the argument in binary
 -- NB: 0 is encoded to the empty bit vector (as specified by the Hoon serialization spec), so 0 has bit length 0.
-bitLength :: forall a. (Integral a) => a -> Int
-bitLength =
-  length
-    . takeWhile (/= 0)
-    . iterate (`shiftR` 1)
-    . toInteger
+bitLength :: (Integral a) => a -> Int
+bitLength n
+  | n == 0 = 0
+  | otherwise = fromIntegral (integerLog2 (abs (fromIntegral n))) + 1
 
--- | Decode a vector of bits (ordered from least to most significant bits) to an integer
-vectorBitsToInteger :: Bit.Vector Bit -> Integer
-vectorBitsToInteger = U.ifoldl' go 0
-  where
-    go :: Integer -> Int -> Bit -> Integer
-    go acc idx (Bit b)
-      | b = setBit acc idx
-      | otherwise = acc
+integerToVectorBits :: (Integral a) => a -> Bit.Vector Bit
+integerToVectorBits = run . execBitWriter . writeIntegral
+
+-- | Decode a vector of bits (ordered from least to most significant bits) to a ByteString
+vectorBitsToByteString :: Bit.Vector Bit -> ByteString
+vectorBitsToByteString = cloneToByteString
 
 -- | Transform a Natural to an Int, computes Nothing if the Natural does not fit in an Int
 safeNaturalToInt :: Natural -> Maybe Int
diff --git a/src/Juvix/Compiler/Nockma/Encoding/ByteString.hs b/src/Juvix/Compiler/Nockma/Encoding/ByteString.hs
index f7eaf048a1..de28cd4817 100644
--- a/src/Juvix/Compiler/Nockma/Encoding/ByteString.hs
+++ b/src/Juvix/Compiler/Nockma/Encoding/ByteString.hs
@@ -1,9 +1,13 @@
 module Juvix.Compiler.Nockma.Encoding.ByteString where
 
+import Data.Bit (Bit)
+import Data.Bit qualified as Bit
 import Data.Bits
 import Data.ByteString qualified as BS
-import Data.ByteString.Builder qualified as BB
 import Data.ByteString.Builder qualified as BS
+import Juvix.Compiler.Nockma.Encoding.Base
+import Juvix.Compiler.Nockma.Encoding.Effect.BitReader
+import Juvix.Compiler.Nockma.Encoding.Effect.BitWriter
 import Juvix.Compiler.Nockma.Language
 import Juvix.Prelude.Base
 
@@ -27,6 +31,25 @@ naturalToByteString = integerToByteStringLE . toInteger
 byteStringToIntegerLE :: ByteString -> Integer
 byteStringToIntegerLE = BS.foldr (\b acc -> acc `shiftL` 8 .|. fromIntegral b) 0
 
+byteStringToIntegerLEChunked :: ByteString -> Integer
+byteStringToIntegerLEChunked = foldr' go 0 . map (first byteStringChunkToInteger) . chunkByteString
+  where
+    chunkSize :: Int
+    chunkSize = 1024
+
+    go :: (Integer, Int) -> Integer -> Integer
+    go (i, size) acc = acc `shiftL` (8 * size) .|. i
+
+    chunkByteString :: ByteString -> [(ByteString, Int)]
+    chunkByteString bs
+      | BS.null bs = []
+      | otherwise =
+          let (chunk, rest) = BS.splitAt chunkSize bs
+           in (chunk, BS.length chunk) : chunkByteString rest
+
+    byteStringChunkToInteger :: ByteString -> Integer
+    byteStringChunkToInteger = BS.foldr' (\b acc -> acc `shiftL` 8 .|. fromIntegral b) 0
+
 integerToByteStringLE :: Integer -> ByteString
 integerToByteStringLE = BS.toStrict . BS.toLazyByteString . go
   where
@@ -64,114 +87,29 @@ padByteString n bs
   | BS.length bs >= n = bs
   | otherwise = BS.append bs (BS.replicate (n - BS.length bs) 0)
 
--- | Encode an Int with a variable-length encoding
---
--- The input Int is encoded in 7 bit chunks in LSB ordering. The most significant
--- bit of each chunk is used to indicate when there are more bytes to read,
--- 1 meaning more bytes, 0 meaning no more bytes.
---
--- For example, the binary representation of 263202 is divided into 3 7-bit chunks:
---
--- 263202 =  10000   0001000  0100010
---           chunk1  chunk2   chunk3
---
--- The chunks are then combined using 3 bytes in LSB ordering, with a 1 in the MSB of the first
--- two bytes (indicating that another byte follows). The final byte has a 0 in the MSB bit.
---
---   chunk3    chunk2    chunk1
--- 1_0100010 1_0001000 0_0010000
-encodeVarInt :: Int -> ByteString
-encodeVarInt = \case
-  0 -> BS.singleton 0
-  n -> BS.toStrict (BB.toLazyByteString (buildVarInt n))
-  where
-    buildVarInt :: Int -> BB.Builder
-    buildVarInt = \case
-      0 -> mempty
-      i ->
-        let byteChunk = fromIntegral (i .&. 0x7F) -- Extract a 7-bit chunk
-            next = i `shiftR` 7 -- Shift to the next 7-bit chunk
-            currentByte =
-              if
-                  | next == 0 -> byteChunk -- No more bytes, so most significant bit for this chunk is 0
-                  | otherwise -> byteChunk .|. 0x80 -- More bytes, so most significant bit for this chunk is 1
-         in BB.word8 currentByte <> buildVarInt next
-
-byteStringToIntegerBE :: ByteString -> Integer
-byteStringToIntegerBE = foldl' go 0 . map (first byteStringChunkToInteger) . chunkByteString
-  where
-    chunkSize :: Int
-    chunkSize = 1024
-
-    go :: Integer -> (Integer, Int) -> Integer
-    go acc (i, size) = acc `shiftL` (8 * size) .|. i
-
-    chunkByteString :: ByteString -> [(ByteString, Int)]
-    chunkByteString bs
-      | BS.null bs = []
-      | otherwise =
-          let (chunk, rest) = BS.splitAt chunkSize bs
-           in (chunk, BS.length chunk) : chunkByteString rest
-
-    byteStringChunkToInteger :: ByteString -> Integer
-    byteStringChunkToInteger = BS.foldl' (\acc b -> acc `shiftL` 8 .|. fromIntegral b) 0
+vectorBitsToInteger :: Bit.Vector Bit -> Integer
+vectorBitsToInteger = byteStringToIntegerLEChunked . vectorBitsToByteString
 
--- | encode a ByteString to an Integer (in MSB ordering) with its length as part of the encoding.
+-- | encode a ByteString to an Integer with its length as part of the encoding.
 encodeByteString :: ByteString -> Integer
-encodeByteString bs = byteStringToIntegerBE (encodedLength <> bs)
+encodeByteString = vectorBitsToInteger . run . execBitWriter . go
   where
-    encodedLength :: ByteString
-    encodedLength = encodeVarInt (BS.length bs)
+    go :: ByteString -> Sem (BitWriter ': r) ()
+    go bs = do
+      let len = BS.length bs
+      writeLength len
+      writeByteString bs
 
 -- | decode a ByteString that was encoded using `encodeByteString`
-decodeByteString :: Integer -> ByteString
-decodeByteString n = padByteString len bytes
-  where
-    (len, bytes) = decodeVarInt (integerToBytes n)
-
--- | Decode an integer in MSB ordering to a bytestring.
-integerToBytes :: Integer -> ByteString
-integerToBytes 0 = BS.singleton 0
-integerToBytes n = BS.reverse $ BS.unfoldr go n
-  where
-    go :: Integer -> Maybe (Word8, Integer)
-    go = \case
-      0 -> Nothing
-      i -> Just (fromIntegral (i .&. 0xff), i `shiftR` 8)
-
--- | Decode a variable-length encoded Int (using `encodeVarInt`) from the start of a ByteString.
---
--- An Int is accumulated from the least significant 7-bits chunk of each byte. The
--- most significant bit of each byte indicates if more bytes of the input should
--- be read. If the most significant bit is one, then there are more bytes, if it
--- is 0 then there are no more bytes.
---
--- For example:
---
--- byte1     byte2     byte3      remainder
--- 1_0100010 1_0001000 0_0010000  ...
---
--- The first byte has most significant bit = 1 so we accumulate the least significant 7 bits and continue.
---
--- acc: 100010
---
--- The second byte has most significant bit = 1 so we accumulate and continue. The bytes are
--- encoded using LSB ordering so we must shift this chunk left by 7:
---
--- acc: 0001000 0100010
---
--- The third byte has most significant bit = 0 so this is the last byte. We must shift this chunk by 2 * 7 = 14
---
--- result : 10000 0001000 0100010 = 263202
-decodeVarInt :: ByteString -> (Int, ByteString)
-decodeVarInt bs = go 0 0 bs
+decodeByteString :: forall r. (Member (Error BitReadError) r) => Integer -> Sem r ByteString
+decodeByteString i = evalBitReader (integerToVectorBits i) go
   where
-    go :: Int -> Int -> ByteString -> (Int, ByteString)
-    go acc toShift s = case BS.uncons s of
-      Nothing -> (acc, BS.empty)
-      Just (x, xs) ->
-        if
-            | x .&. 0x80 == 0 -> (acc .|. (fromIntegral x `shiftL` toShift), xs) -- The most significant bit is 0, no more bytes
-            | otherwise ->
-                let chunk = x .&. 0x7F -- Extract the next 7-bit chunk
-                 in go (acc .|. (fromIntegral chunk `shiftL` toShift)) (toShift + 7) xs
+    go :: Sem (BitReader ': r) ByteString
+    go = do
+      len <- consumeLength
+      v <- consumeRemaining
+      return (padByteString len (Bit.cloneToByteString v))
+
+-- | decode a ByteString that was encoded using `encodeByteString` with a default that's used if decoding fails.
+decodeByteStringWithDefault :: ByteString -> Integer -> ByteString
+decodeByteStringWithDefault d = fromRight d . run . runErrorNoCallStack @BitReadError . decodeByteString
diff --git a/src/Juvix/Compiler/Nockma/Encoding/Cue.hs b/src/Juvix/Compiler/Nockma/Encoding/Cue.hs
index ab9aaa69fa..ee20276373 100644
--- a/src/Juvix/Compiler/Nockma/Encoding/Cue.hs
+++ b/src/Juvix/Compiler/Nockma/Encoding/Cue.hs
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ module Juvix.Compiler.Nockma.Encoding.Cue where
 
 import Data.Bit as Bit
 import Juvix.Compiler.Nockma.Encoding.Base
+import Juvix.Compiler.Nockma.Encoding.ByteString
 import Juvix.Compiler.Nockma.Encoding.Effect.BitReader
 import Juvix.Compiler.Nockma.Language
 import Juvix.Compiler.Nockma.Pretty.Base
diff --git a/src/Juvix/Compiler/Nockma/Encoding/Jam.hs b/src/Juvix/Compiler/Nockma/Encoding/Jam.hs
index f3ba8de81a..393b174e79 100644
--- a/src/Juvix/Compiler/Nockma/Encoding/Jam.hs
+++ b/src/Juvix/Compiler/Nockma/Encoding/Jam.hs
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ module Juvix.Compiler.Nockma.Encoding.Jam where
 import Data.Bit as Bit
 import Data.Bits
 import Juvix.Compiler.Nockma.Encoding.Base
+import Juvix.Compiler.Nockma.Encoding.ByteString
 import Juvix.Compiler.Nockma.Encoding.Effect.BitWriter
 import Juvix.Compiler.Nockma.Language
 import Juvix.Prelude.Base
diff --git a/test/Nockma/Encoding.hs b/test/Nockma/Encoding.hs
index 07e0c20b6e..1e0e63d0dd 100644
--- a/test/Nockma/Encoding.hs
+++ b/test/Nockma/Encoding.hs
@@ -9,9 +9,9 @@ import Test.Tasty.Hedgehog
 
 propEncodingRoundtrip :: Property
 propEncodingRoundtrip = property $ do
-  -- The range must be greater than the chunkSize in `byteStringToIntegerBE`
+  -- The range must be greater than the chunkSize in `byteStringToIntegerLEChunked`
   bs <- forAll (Gen.bytes (Range.linear 0 3000))
-  Encoding.decodeByteString (Encoding.encodeByteString bs) === bs
+  Encoding.decodeByteStringWithDefault (error "failed to decode") (Encoding.encodeByteString bs) === bs
 
 allTests :: TestTree
 allTests = testGroup "Nockma encoding" [testProperty "Roundtrip ByteArray to/from integer encoding" propEncodingRoundtrip]