diff --git a/trie/proof.go b/trie/proof.go
index 491c4ec1d5..3c4b8d653d 100644
--- a/trie/proof.go
+++ b/trie/proof.go
@@ -103,10 +103,9 @@ func (t *SecureTrie) Prove(key []byte, fromLevel uint, proofDb ethdb.Writer) err
 // VerifyProof checks merkle proofs. The given proof must contain the value for
 // key in a trie with the given root hash. VerifyProof returns an error if the
 // proof contains invalid trie nodes or the wrong value.
+//
+// Note, the method assumes that all key-values in proofDb satisfy key = hash(value).
 func VerifyProof(rootHash common.Hash, key []byte, proofDb ethdb.Reader) (value []byte, nodes int, err error) {
-	hasher := newHasher(nil)
-	defer returnHasherToPool(hasher)
-
 	key = keybytesToHex(key)
 	wantHash := rootHash
 	for i := 0; ; i++ {
@@ -114,9 +113,6 @@ func VerifyProof(rootHash common.Hash, key []byte, proofDb ethdb.Reader) (value
 		if buf == nil {
 			return nil, i, fmt.Errorf("proof node %d (hash %064x) missing", i, wantHash)
 		}
-		if !bytes.Equal(hasher.makeHashNode(buf), wantHash.Bytes()) {
-			return nil, i, fmt.Errorf("proof node %d (hash %064x) invalid", i, wantHash)
-		}
 		n, err := decodeNode(wantHash[:], buf)
 		if err != nil {
 			return nil, i, fmt.Errorf("bad proof node %d: %v", i, err)
diff --git a/trie/proof_test.go b/trie/proof_test.go
index c0edd3ef1d..c488f342c8 100644
--- a/trie/proof_test.go
+++ b/trie/proof_test.go
@@ -125,35 +125,6 @@ func TestBadProof(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
-func TestMutateValueProof(t *testing.T) {
-	trie, vals := randomTrie(800)
-	root := trie.Hash()
-	for i, prover := range makeProvers(trie) {
-		for _, kv := range vals {
-			proof := prover(kv.k)
-			if proof == nil {
-				t.Fatalf("prover %d: nil proof", i)
-			}
-			it := proof.NewIterator()
-			for i, d := 0, mrand.Intn(proof.Len()); i <= d; i++ {
-				it.Next()
-			}
-			key := it.Key()
-			val, _ := proof.Get(key)
-			proof.Delete(key)
-			it.Release()
-
-			origin := crypto.Keccak256(val)
-			mutateByte(val)
-			proof.Put(origin, val)
-
-			if _, _, err := VerifyProof(root, kv.k, proof); err == nil {
-				t.Fatalf("prover %d: expected proof to fail for key %x", i, kv.k)
-			}
-		}
-	}
-}
-
 // Tests that missing keys can also be proven. The test explicitly uses a single
 // entry trie and checks for missing keys both before and after the single entry.
 func TestMissingKeyProof(t *testing.T) {