diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index e3bea7534e..b72b887f29 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -1572,6 +1572,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "cosmwasm-std",
  "schemars",
  "serde",
+ "serde_repr",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -2783,6 +2784,17 @@ dependencies = [
  "serde",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "serde_repr"
+version = "0.1.7"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "98d0516900518c29efa217c298fa1f4e6c6ffc85ae29fd7f4ee48f176e1a9ed5"
+dependencies = [
+ "proc-macro2",
+ "quote",
+ "syn",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "serde_urlencoded"
 version = "0.7.0"
diff --git a/common/mixnet-contract/Cargo.toml b/common/mixnet-contract/Cargo.toml
index a645e97ef7..cf58e7d104 100644
--- a/common/mixnet-contract/Cargo.toml
+++ b/common/mixnet-contract/Cargo.toml
@@ -9,4 +9,5 @@ edition = "2018"
 [dependencies]
 cosmwasm-std = { version = "0.14.1" }
 serde = { version = "1.0", features = ["derive"] }
+serde_repr = "0.1"
 schemars = "0.8"
diff --git a/common/mixnet-contract/src/mixnode.rs b/common/mixnet-contract/src/mixnode.rs
index be271da83d..9870516b93 100644
--- a/common/mixnet-contract/src/mixnode.rs
+++ b/common/mixnet-contract/src/mixnode.rs
@@ -2,10 +2,10 @@
 #![allow(clippy::field_reassign_with_default)]
 
 use crate::{IdentityKey, SphinxKey};
-
 use cosmwasm_std::{coin, Addr, Coin};
 use schemars::JsonSchema;
 use serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};
+use serde_repr::{Deserialize_repr, Serialize_repr};
 use std::fmt::Display;
 
 #[derive(Clone, Debug, Deserialize, PartialEq, Serialize, JsonSchema)]
@@ -20,12 +20,13 @@ pub struct MixNode {
     pub version: String,
 }
 
-#[derive(Copy, Clone, Debug, Deserialize, PartialEq, Serialize, JsonSchema)]
+#[derive(Copy, Clone, Debug, Serialize_repr, PartialEq, Deserialize_repr, JsonSchema)]
+#[repr(u8)]
 pub enum Layer {
-    Gateway,
-    One,
-    Two,
-    Three,
+    Gateway = 0,
+    One = 1,
+    Two = 2,
+    Three = 3,
 }
 
 #[derive(Clone, Debug, Deserialize, PartialEq, Serialize, JsonSchema)]
diff --git a/contracts/mixnet/Cargo.lock b/contracts/mixnet/Cargo.lock
index b8057fa632..5ed48b2d71 100644
--- a/contracts/mixnet/Cargo.lock
+++ b/contracts/mixnet/Cargo.lock
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 # This file is automatically @generated by Cargo.
 # It is not intended for manual editing.
+version = 3
+
 [[package]]
 name = "base64"
 version = "0.13.0"
@@ -303,6 +305,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "cosmwasm-std",
  "schemars",
  "serde",
+ "serde_repr",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -447,6 +450,17 @@ dependencies = [
  "serde",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "serde_repr"
+version = "0.1.7"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "98d0516900518c29efa217c298fa1f4e6c6ffc85ae29fd7f4ee48f176e1a9ed5"
+dependencies = [
+ "proc-macro2",
+ "quote",
+ "syn",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "sha2"
 version = "0.9.5"