diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 716635a..7785aa3 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ sha2 = "0.8.1"
 sleep-parser = "0.8.0"
 sparse-bitfield = "0.11.0"
 tree-index = "0.6.0"
+bitfield-rle = "0.1.1"
 
 [dev-dependencies]
 quickcheck = "0.9.2"
diff --git a/src/bitfield/mod.rs b/src/bitfield/mod.rs
index 833cc47..367c319 100644
--- a/src/bitfield/mod.rs
+++ b/src/bitfield/mod.rs
@@ -229,6 +229,38 @@ impl Bitfield {
         }
     }
 
+    // TODO: use the index to speed this up *a lot*
+    /// https://github.com/mafintosh/hypercore/blob/06f3a1f573cb74ee8cfab2742455318fbf7cc3a2/lib/bitfield.js#L111-L126
+    pub fn compress(&self, start: usize, length: usize) -> std::io::Result<Vec<u8>> {
+        // On Node versions this fields might not be present on the want/request message
+        // When both start and length are not present (!0 in node is false), return all data bytes encoded
+        if start == 0 && length == 0 {
+            return Ok(bitfield_rle::encode(&self.data.to_bytes()?));
+        }
+
+        use std::io::{Cursor, Write};
+        let mut buf = Cursor::new(Vec::with_capacity(length));
+
+        let page_size = self.data.page_size() as f64;
+        let mut p = start as f64 / page_size / 8.0;
+        let end = p + length as f64 / page_size / 8.0;
+        let offset = p * page_size;
+
+        while p < end {
+            let index = p as usize;
+            let page = self.data.pages.get(index);
+            if let Some(page) = page {
+                if page.len() != 0 {
+                    buf.set_position((p * page_size - offset) as u64);
+                    buf.write_all(&page)?;
+                }
+            }
+            p += 1.0;
+        }
+
+        Ok(bitfield_rle::encode(&buf.into_inner()))
+    }
+
     /// Constructs an iterator from start to end
     pub fn iterator(&mut self) -> iterator::Iterator<'_> {
         let len = self.length;
diff --git a/src/feed.rs b/src/feed.rs
index a1433ea..34a4232 100644
--- a/src/feed.rs
+++ b/src/feed.rs
@@ -524,6 +524,11 @@ where
         })
     }
 
+    /// Expose the bitfield attribute to use on during download
+    pub fn bitfield(&self) -> &Bitfield {
+        &self.bitfield
+    }
+
     /// (unimplemented) Provide a range of data to download.
     pub fn download(&mut self, _range: Range<u64>) -> Result<()> {
         unimplemented!();
diff --git a/tests/bitfield.rs b/tests/bitfield.rs
index bc02642..b90ee7d 100644
--- a/tests/bitfield.rs
+++ b/tests/bitfield.rs
@@ -174,3 +174,25 @@ fn bitfield_dedup() {
     assert!(!b.get(8 * 1024));
     assert!(b.get(16 * 1024));
 }
+
+#[test]
+fn bitfield_compress() {
+    let mut b = Bitfield::new();
+    assert_eq!(b.compress(0, 0).unwrap(), vec![0]);
+
+    b.set(1, true);
+    assert_eq!(b.compress(0, 0).unwrap(), vec![2, 64, 253, 31]);
+
+    b.set(1_424_244, true);
+    assert_eq!(
+        b.compress(0, 0).unwrap(),
+        vec![2, 64, 181, 187, 43, 2, 8, 197, 4]
+    );
+    assert_eq!(b.compress(0, 1).unwrap(), vec![2, 64, 253, 31]);
+    assert_eq!(
+        b.compress(1_424_244, 1).unwrap(),
+        vec![185, 27, 2, 8, 197, 4]
+    );
+
+    assert_eq!(b.compress(1_424_244_000, 1).unwrap(), vec![0]);
+}
diff --git a/tests/model.rs b/tests/model.rs
index b7e62fc..5e71999 100644
--- a/tests/model.rs
+++ b/tests/model.rs
@@ -1,12 +1,7 @@
-#[macro_use]
-extern crate quickcheck;
-extern crate hypercore;
-extern crate rand;
-
 mod common;
 
 use common::create_feed;
-use quickcheck::{Arbitrary, Gen};
+use quickcheck::{quickcheck, Arbitrary, Gen};
 use rand::seq::SliceRandom;
 use rand::Rng;
 use std::u8;