diff --git a/nimue/src/errors.rs b/nimue/src/errors.rs
index 0a5bacd..95ad642 100644
--- a/nimue/src/errors.rs
+++ b/nimue/src/errors.rs
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
 ///   An error to signal that the verification equation has failed. Destined for end users.
 ///
 /// A [`core::Result::Result`] wrapper called [`ProofResult`] (having error fixed to [`ProofError`]) is also provided.
-use std::{borrow::Borrow, error::Error, fmt::Display};
+use std::{borrow::Borrow, error::Error, fmt::Display, string::FromUtf8Error};
 
 /// Signals an invalid IO pattern.
 ///
@@ -82,3 +82,9 @@ impl From<std::io::Error> for IOPatternError {
         IOPatternError(value.to_string())
     }
 }
+
+impl From<FromUtf8Error> for IOPatternError {
+    fn from(value: FromUtf8Error) -> Self {
+        Self(value.to_string())
+    }
+}
diff --git a/nimue/src/hash/keccak.rs b/nimue/src/hash/keccak.rs
index 4d8949a..748c649 100644
--- a/nimue/src/hash/keccak.rs
+++ b/nimue/src/hash/keccak.rs
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ fn transmute_state(st: &mut AlignedKeccakState) -> &mut [u64; 25] {
 /// This is a wrapper around 200-byte buffer that's always 8-byte aligned
 /// to make pointers to it safely convertible to pointers to [u64; 25]
 /// (since u64 words must be 8-byte aligned)
-#[derive(Clone, Zeroize, ZeroizeOnDrop)]
+#[derive(Clone, Zeroize, ZeroizeOnDrop, PartialEq, Eq)]
 #[repr(align(8))]
 pub struct AlignedKeccakState([u8; 200]);
 
diff --git a/nimue/src/hash/sponge.rs b/nimue/src/hash/sponge.rs
index 985af62..04d9a67 100644
--- a/nimue/src/hash/sponge.rs
+++ b/nimue/src/hash/sponge.rs
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ pub trait Sponge: Zeroize + Default + Clone + AsRef<[Self::U]> + AsMut<[Self::U]
 }
 
 /// A cryptographic sponge.
-#[derive(Clone, Default, Zeroize, ZeroizeOnDrop)]
+#[derive(Clone, Default, Zeroize, ZeroizeOnDrop, PartialEq, Eq)]
 pub struct DuplexSponge<C: Sponge> {
     sponge: C,
     absorb_pos: usize,
diff --git a/nimue/src/iopattern.rs b/nimue/src/iopattern.rs
index 939e8d0..fa89106 100644
--- a/nimue/src/iopattern.rs
+++ b/nimue/src/iopattern.rs
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ const SEP_BYTE: &str = "\0";
 /// The struct [`IOPattern`] guarantees the creation of a valid IO Pattern string, whose lengths are coherent with the types described in the protocol. No information about the types themselves is stored in an IO Pattern.
 /// This means that [`Merlin`][`crate::Merlin`] or [`Arthur`][`crate::Arthur`] instances can generate successfully a protocol transcript respecting the length constraint but not the types. See [issue #6](https://github.com/arkworks-rs/nimue/issues/6) for a discussion on the topic.
 
-#[derive(Clone)]
+#[derive(Clone, PartialEq, Eq)]
 pub struct IOPattern<H = crate::DefaultHash, U = u8>
 where
     U: Unit,
@@ -139,6 +139,17 @@ impl<H: DuplexHash<U>, U: Unit> IOPattern<H, U> {
         self.io.as_bytes()
     }
 
+    /// Return the IO Pattern as owned bytes.
+    pub fn to_bytes(&self) -> Vec<u8> {
+        self.io.clone().into_bytes()
+    }
+
+    /// Construct an IO Pattern from serialized bytes (usually output from `Self::to_bytes()`)
+    pub fn from_bytes(bytes: Vec<u8>) -> Result<Self, IOPatternError> {
+        let io = String::from_utf8(bytes)?;
+        Ok(Self::from_string(io))
+    }
+
     /// Parse the givern IO Pattern into a sequence of [`Op`]'s.
     pub(crate) fn finalize(&self) -> VecDeque<Op> {
         // Guaranteed to succeed as instances are all valid iopatterns
diff --git a/nimue/src/tests.rs b/nimue/src/tests.rs
index 4295dba..78295fc 100644
--- a/nimue/src/tests.rs
+++ b/nimue/src/tests.rs
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@ fn test_iopattern() {
     // test that the byte separator is always added
     let iop = IOPattern::<Keccak>::new("example.com");
     assert!(iop.as_bytes().starts_with(b"example.com"));
+
+    assert_eq!(IOPattern::from_bytes(iop.to_bytes()).unwrap(), iop);
 }
 
 /// Test Merlin's rng is not doing completely stupid things.