docs: def todict(self):
          """Returns a dictionary fully representing the state of this object
          """
          return {'index': self.index,
                  'seed': hb_encode(self.seed),
                  'n': self.n,
                  'root': hb_encode(self.root),
                  'hmac': hb_encode(self.hmac),
                  'timestamp': self.timestamp}