anchor.diff:                                 BucketSizeBits, Hashes), LeafNAcc + 1, ToSend};
                          ({MyKItems, _MyItemCount}, {Hashes, LeafNAcc, ToSend}) ->
                               % empty leaf hash on the other node
  -                            {<<Hashes/bitstring, 0:BucketSizeBits>>, LeafNAcc + 1, MyKItems ++ ToSend}
  +                            {Hashes, LeafNAcc + 1, MyKItems ++ ToSend}
                       end, {<<>>, 0, []}, Sync),
   
  -    % resolve the leaf-leaf comparison's items as key_upd:
  +    % resolve the leaf-leaf comparisons's items with empty leaves on the initiator as key_upd:
  +    ?DBG_ASSERT(?implies(ToSend =/= [], not IsInitiator)),
       Stats1 = send_resolve_request(Stats, ToSend, OwnerL, DestRRPid, IsInitiator, true),
       NStats = rr_recon_stats:inc([{tree_leavesSynced, LeafCount}], Stats1),
       {Hashes, NStats}.
  
positive.code:                                 [erlang:byte_size(Hashes),
                                   erlang:byte_size(
                                     erlang:term_to_binary(Hashes, [compressed]))]),
                    ?DBG_ASSERT(Hashes =/= <<>>),
                    send(DestReconPid, {resolve_req, Hashes}),
                    NewState#rr_recon_state{stage = resolve, stats = NStats2,
                                            misc = [{one_leaf_p1e, P1EOneLeaf}]};
  
negative.code:                                                 Params#merkle_params.bucket_size + 1),
                    {NHashes, ToSend1, ToResolve1,
                     ?IIF(ReqIdx =/= [], true, ResolveNonEmpty),
                     LeafNAcc + LeafCount, NIResolves}
            end, {Hashes, [], [], false, 0, 0}, Sync),
  
      % send resolve message:
      % resolve items we should send as key_upd:
      Stats1 = send_resolve_request(Stats, ToSend, OwnerL, DestRRPid, IsInitiator, true),
      % let the other node's rr_recon process identify the remaining keys;
      % it will use key_upd_send (if non-empty) and we must thus increase
  