diff --git a/include/fc/variant.hpp b/include/fc/variant.hpp
index 279b7de..2098a70 100644
--- a/include/fc/variant.hpp
+++ b/include/fc/variant.hpp
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 #include <fc/optional.hpp>
 #include <fc/uint128.hpp>
 #include <fc/container/flat_fwd.hpp>
+#include <fc/crypto/hex.hpp>
 #include <boost/endian/buffers.hpp>
 #include <boost/multi_index_container_fwd.hpp>
 
@@ -663,14 +664,14 @@ namespace fc
    template<size_t N>
    void to_variant( const std::array<char,N>& bi, variant& v, uint32_t max_depth = 1 )
    {
-      to_variant( std::vector<char>( bi.begin(), bi.end() ), v, 1 );
+      v = variant( to_hex( bi.data(), N ) );
    }
    template<size_t N>
    void from_variant( const variant& v, std::array<char,N>& bi, uint32_t max_depth = 1 )
    {
-      std::vector<char> ve = v.as< std::vector<char> >( 1 );
+      std::string ve = v.as_string();
       if( ve.size() )
-         memcpy( bi.data(), ve.data(), std::min<size_t>( ve.size(), bi.size() ) );
+         from_hex( ve, bi.data(), std::min<size_t>( ve.size() / 2, bi.size() ) );
       else
          memset( bi.data(), 0, bi.size() );
    }
@@ -678,14 +679,14 @@ namespace fc
    template<size_t N>
    void to_variant( const std::array<unsigned char,N>& bi, variant& v, uint32_t max_depth = 1 )
    {
-      to_variant( std::vector<char>( bi.begin(), bi.end() ), v, 1 );
+      v = variant( to_hex( (char*) bi.data(), N ) );
    }
    template<size_t N>
    void from_variant( const variant& v, std::array<unsigned char,N>& bi, uint32_t max_depth = 1 )
    {
-      std::vector<char> ve = v.as< std::vector<char> >( 1 );
+      std::string ve = v.as_string();
       if( ve.size() )
-         memcpy( bi.data(), ve.data(), std::min<size_t>( ve.size(), bi.size() ) );
+         from_hex( ve, (char*)bi.data(), std::min<size_t>( ve.size() / 2, bi.size() ) );
       else
          memset( bi.data(), 0, bi.size() );
    }