diff --git a/src/apiservers/private/__init__.py b/src/apiservers/private/__init__.py
index ca7587df..a7c07bd6 100644
--- a/src/apiservers/private/__init__.py
+++ b/src/apiservers/private/__init__.py
@@ -76,10 +76,7 @@ class PrivateAPI:
             logger.error("client password needs to be set")
             return False
         try:
-            if not hmac.compare_digest(self.clientToken, token):
-                return False
-            else:
-                return True
+            return hmac.compare_digest(self.clientToken, token)
         except TypeError:
             return False
 
diff --git a/src/utils/reconstructhash.py b/src/utils/reconstructhash.py
index ae50c0b2..c50840cb 100644
--- a/src/utils/reconstructhash.py
+++ b/src/utils/reconstructhash.py
@@ -21,7 +21,6 @@ def reconstruct_hash(hex_hash, length=64):
     return hex_hash.zfill(length)
 
 def deconstruct_hash(hex_hash):
-    new_hash = ''
     ret_bytes = False
     try:
         hex_hash = hex_hash.decode()
@@ -29,15 +28,10 @@ def deconstruct_hash(hex_hash):
     except AttributeError:
         pass
 
-    c = 0
-    for x in hex_hash:
-        if x == '0':
-            c += 1
-        else:
-            break
-    new_hash = hex_hash[c:]
+    num_zeroes = hex_hash.count('0')
+    new_hash = hex_hash[num_zeroes:]
 
     if ret_bytes:
-
         new_hash = new_hash.encode()
+    
     return new_hash
\ No newline at end of file