diff --git a/applications/minotari_merge_mining_proxy/src/proxy.rs b/applications/minotari_merge_mining_proxy/src/proxy.rs
index 5d95452c81..00b3b68252 100644
--- a/applications/minotari_merge_mining_proxy/src/proxy.rs
+++ b/applications/minotari_merge_mining_proxy/src/proxy.rs
@@ -920,14 +920,11 @@ impl InnerService {
 
         debug!(
             target: LOG_TARGET,
-            "request: {} ({})",
+            "request - method: {}, uri: {}, headers: {:?}, body: {}",
+            request.method(),
+            request.uri(),
+            request.headers(),
             String::from_utf8_lossy(&request.body().clone()[..]),
-            request
-                .headers()
-                .iter()
-                .map(|(k, v)| format!("{}={}", k, String::from_utf8_lossy(v.as_ref())))
-                .collect::<Vec<_>>()
-                .join(","),
         );
 
         match self.proxy_request_to_monerod(request).await {
diff --git a/base_layer/core/src/base_node/comms_interface/inbound_handlers.rs b/base_layer/core/src/base_node/comms_interface/inbound_handlers.rs
index b6a2faac18..40d0c8059d 100644
--- a/base_layer/core/src/base_node/comms_interface/inbound_handlers.rs
+++ b/base_layer/core/src/base_node/comms_interface/inbound_handlers.rs
@@ -273,7 +273,7 @@ where B: BlockchainBackend + 'static
                 // We need to ensure the mempool has seen the latest base node height before we can be confident the
                 // template is correct
                 while !is_mempool_synced && start.elapsed().as_millis() < MAX_MEMPOOL_TIMEOUT.into() {
-                    if best_block_header.hash() == &last_seen_hash {
+                    if best_block_header.hash() == &last_seen_hash || last_seen_hash == FixedHash::default() {
                         is_mempool_synced = true;
                     } else {
                         tokio::time::sleep(std::time::Duration::from_millis(10)).await;