Changes needed to be proposed for upstream inclusion

[bitphage]

To simplify library development, these changes should be included into upstream:

• [ ] e89701f77b5e96c79c523b87db9446ea4f104723
• [x] 4520962f4b23e174961de037f40329fcd1c12a17
• [x] c3b096e906c107cea130c5fe03656e30374a394b
• [x] 94f0c6ce45dd3371afb84f10bc07362a8c1e2ece
• [x] 212ce79839acb0dd6cc24d67225d61488cbb69ba

I'll use this issue to track these and as a personal reminder.

[bitphage]

• [x] steemit#171
• [x] steemit#172
• [x] steemit#173
• [x] steemit#174