diff --git a/storage/batch.go b/storage/batch.go
index 23b9d39ac63..bc9c4853294 100644
--- a/storage/batch.go
+++ b/storage/batch.go
@@ -4,16 +4,16 @@ import (
 	"github.com/dgraph-io/badger/v2"
 )
 
-// deprecated
-// use Writer instead
+// Deprecated: Transaction is being deprecated as part of the transition from Badger to Pebble.
+// Use Writer instead of Transaction for all new code.
 type Transaction interface {
 	Set(key, val []byte) error
 }
 
-// deprecated
-// use ReaderBatchWriter instead
 // BatchStorage serves as an abstraction over batch storage, adding ability to add ability to add extra
 // callbacks which fire after the batch is successfully flushed.
+// Deprecated: BatchStorage is being deprecated as part of the transition from Badger to Pebble.
+// Use ReaderBatchWriter instead of BatchStorage for all new code.
 type BatchStorage interface {
 	GetWriter() *badger.WriteBatch
 
diff --git a/storage/operation/badgerimpl/iterator.go b/storage/operation/badgerimpl/iterator.go
index 81ecda2d719..e9f8b5dc6be 100644
--- a/storage/operation/badgerimpl/iterator.go
+++ b/storage/operation/badgerimpl/iterator.go
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ func newBadgerIterator(db *badger.DB, startPrefix, endPrefix []byte, ops storage
 	}
 }
 
-func (i *badgerIterator) SeekGE() {
+func (i *badgerIterator) First() {
 	i.iter.Seek(i.lowerBound)
 }
 
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ func (i *badgerIterator) Valid() bool {
 		return false
 	}
 	key := i.iter.Item().Key()
-	// "< 0" means the upperBound is exclusive
+	// "< 0" means "key < upperBound"
 	valid := bytes.Compare(key, i.upperBound) < 0
 	return valid
 }
diff --git a/storage/operation/badgerimpl/reader.go b/storage/operation/badgerimpl/reader.go
index 06158e634ff..8d7d982d65e 100644
--- a/storage/operation/badgerimpl/reader.go
+++ b/storage/operation/badgerimpl/reader.go
@@ -32,11 +32,7 @@ func (b dbReader) Get(key []byte) ([]byte, io.Closer, error) {
 		return nil, nil, irrecoverable.NewExceptionf("could not load data: %w", err)
 	}
 
-	var value []byte
-	err = item.Value(func(val []byte) error {
-		value = append([]byte{}, val...)
-		return nil
-	})
+	value, err := item.ValueCopy(nil)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, nil, irrecoverable.NewExceptionf("could not load value: %w", err)
 	}
diff --git a/storage/operation/pebbleimpl/iterator.go b/storage/operation/pebbleimpl/iterator.go
index d8453b497f5..b1b6630cc51 100644
--- a/storage/operation/pebbleimpl/iterator.go
+++ b/storage/operation/pebbleimpl/iterator.go
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ func newPebbleIterator(reader pebble.Reader, startPrefix, endPrefix []byte, ops
 	}, nil
 }
 
-func (i *pebbleIterator) SeekGE() {
+func (i *pebbleIterator) First() {
 	i.iter.First()
 }
 
diff --git a/storage/operation/pebbleimpl/writer.go b/storage/operation/pebbleimpl/writer.go
index ad639223209..c6ccdff06b9 100644
--- a/storage/operation/pebbleimpl/writer.go
+++ b/storage/operation/pebbleimpl/writer.go
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ func (b *ReaderBatchWriter) Delete(key []byte) error {
 	return b.batch.Delete(key, pebble.Sync)
 }
 
-// DeleteByRange deletes all keys with the given prefix defined by [startPrefix, endPrefix] (both inclusive).
+// DeleteByRange deletes all keys with a prefix in the range [startPrefix, endPrefix] (both inclusive).
 func (b *ReaderBatchWriter) DeleteByRange(_ storage.Reader, startPrefix, endPrefix []byte) error {
 	// DeleteRange takes the prefix range with start (inclusive) and end (exclusive, note: not inclusive).
 	// therefore, we need to increment the endPrefix to make it inclusive.
diff --git a/storage/operation/reads.go b/storage/operation/reads.go
index 2e6be8dd3fe..1be299ab9d8 100644
--- a/storage/operation/reads.go
+++ b/storage/operation/reads.go
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ type CreateFunc func() interface{}
 type HandleFunc func() error
 type IterationFunc func() (CheckFunc, CreateFunc, HandleFunc)
 
-// IterateKeysInPrefixRange will iterate over all keys in the given range [startPrefix, endPrefix] (both inclusive)
+// IterateKeysInPrefixRange will iterate over all keys with prefixes in the range [startPrefix, endPrefix] (both inclusive)
 func IterateKeysInPrefixRange(startPrefix []byte, endPrefix []byte, check func(key []byte) error) func(storage.Reader) error {
 	return Iterate(startPrefix, endPrefix, func() (CheckFunc, CreateFunc, HandleFunc) {
 		return func(key []byte) (bool, error) {
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ func IterateKeysInPrefixRange(startPrefix []byte, endPrefix []byte, check func(k
 	}, storage.IteratorOption{IterateKeyOnly: true})
 }
 
-// Iterate will iterate over all keys in the given range [startPrefix, endPrefix] (both inclusive)
+// Iterate will iterate over all keys with prefixes in the given range [startPrefix, endPrefix] (both inclusive)
 func Iterate(startPrefix []byte, endPrefix []byte, iterFunc IterationFunc, opt storage.IteratorOption) func(storage.Reader) error {
 	return func(r storage.Reader) error {
 
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ func Iterate(startPrefix []byte, endPrefix []byte, iterFunc IterationFunc, opt s
 		}
 		defer it.Close()
 
-		for it.SeekGE(); it.Valid(); it.Next() {
+		for it.First(); it.Valid(); it.Next() {
 			item := it.IterItem()
 			key := item.Key()
 
@@ -72,6 +72,9 @@ func Iterate(startPrefix []byte, endPrefix []byte, iterFunc IterationFunc, opt s
 			check, create, handle := iterFunc()
 
 			keyCopy := make([]byte, len(key))
+
+			// The underlying database may re-use and modify the backing memory of the returned key.
+			// Tor safety we proactively make a copy before passing the key to the upper layer.
 			copy(keyCopy, key)
 
 			// check if we should process the item at all
@@ -112,25 +115,7 @@ func Iterate(startPrefix []byte, endPrefix []byte, iterFunc IterationFunc, opt s
 
 // Traverse will iterate over all keys with the given prefix
 func Traverse(prefix []byte, iterFunc IterationFunc, opt storage.IteratorOption) func(storage.Reader) error {
-	return Iterate(prefix, PrefixUpperBound(prefix), iterFunc, opt)
-}
-
-// PrefixUpperBound returns a key K such that all possible keys beginning with the input prefix
-// sort lower than K according to the byte-wise lexicographic key ordering used by Pebble.
-// This is used to define an upper bound for iteration, when we want to iterate over
-// all keys beginning with a given prefix.
-// referred to https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/cockroachdb/pebble#example-Iterator-PrefixIteration
-func PrefixUpperBound(prefix []byte) []byte {
-	end := make([]byte, len(prefix))
-	copy(end, prefix)
-	for i := len(end) - 1; i >= 0; i-- {
-		// increment the bytes by 1
-		end[i] = end[i] + 1
-		if end[i] != 0 {
-			return end[:i+1]
-		}
-	}
-	return nil // no upper-bound
+	return Iterate(prefix, prefix, iterFunc, opt)
 }
 
 // Exists returns true if a key exists in the database.
@@ -155,7 +140,7 @@ func Exists(key []byte, keyExists *bool) func(storage.Reader) error {
 	}
 }
 
-// retrieve will retrieve the binary data under the given key from the badger DB
+// Retrieve will retrieve the binary data under the given key from the database
 // and decode it into the given entity. The provided entity needs to be a
 // pointer to an initialized entity of the correct type.
 // Error returns:
@@ -196,7 +181,7 @@ func FindHighestAtOrBelow(prefix []byte, height uint64, entity interface{}) func
 
 		var highestKey []byte
 		// find highest value below the given height
-		for it.SeekGE(); it.Valid(); it.Next() {
+		for it.First(); it.Valid(); it.Next() {
 			highestKey = it.IterItem().Key()
 		}
 
diff --git a/storage/operation/reads_test.go b/storage/operation/reads_test.go
index e24bc15b5ae..b9addec418d 100644
--- a/storage/operation/reads_test.go
+++ b/storage/operation/reads_test.go
@@ -35,9 +35,9 @@ func TestIterateKeysInPrefixRange(t *testing.T) {
 			{0x21, 0x00},
 		}
 
-		// Keys expected to be in the prefix range
-		lastNToExclude := 1
-		keysInRange := keys[1 : len(keys)-lastNToExclude] // these keys are between the start and end
+		// The first and last keys are outside the prefix range, so we omit them
+		// from keysInRange, which is the set of keys we expect in the iteration
+		keysInRange := keys[1 : len(keys)-1]
 
 		// Insert the keys into the storage
 		require.NoError(t, withWriter(func(writer storage.Writer) error {
@@ -63,20 +63,21 @@ func TestIterateKeysInPrefixRange(t *testing.T) {
 
 func TestTraverse(t *testing.T) {
 	dbtest.RunWithStorages(t, func(t *testing.T, r storage.Reader, withWriter dbtest.WithWriter) {
-		keys := [][]byte{
-			{0x42, 0x00},
-			{0xff},
-			{0x42, 0x56},
-			{0x00},
-			{0x42, 0xff},
+		keyVals := map[[2]byte]uint64{
+			{0x41, 0xff}: 3,
+			{0x42, 0x00}: 11,
+			{0xff}:       13,
+			{0x42, 0x56}: 17,
+			{0x00}:       19,
+			{0x42, 0xff}: 23,
+			{0x43, 0x00}: 33,
 		}
-		vals := []uint64{11, 13, 17, 19, 23}
 		expected := []uint64{11, 23}
 
 		// Insert the keys and values into storage
 		require.NoError(t, withWriter(func(writer storage.Writer) error {
-			for i, key := range keys {
-				err := operation.Upsert(key, vals[i])(writer)
+			for key, val := range keyVals {
+				err := operation.Upsert(key[:], val)(writer)
 				if err != nil {
 					return err
 				}
@@ -84,7 +85,7 @@ func TestTraverse(t *testing.T) {
 			return nil
 		}))
 
-		actual := make([]uint64, 0, len(keys))
+		actual := make([]uint64, 0, len(keyVals))
 
 		// Define the iteration logic
 		iterationFunc := func() (operation.CheckFunc, operation.CreateFunc, operation.HandleFunc) {
diff --git a/storage/operation/writes_test.go b/storage/operation/writes_test.go
index aa7b5020b1a..9355b5822db 100644
--- a/storage/operation/writes_test.go
+++ b/storage/operation/writes_test.go
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@ import (
 	"github.com/onflow/flow-go/storage"
 	"github.com/onflow/flow-go/storage/operation"
 	"github.com/onflow/flow-go/storage/operation/dbtest"
-	"github.com/onflow/flow-go/utils/unittest"
 )
 
 func TestReadWrite(t *testing.T) {
@@ -230,16 +229,15 @@ func TestRemoveRange(t *testing.T) {
 		// Remove the keys in the prefix range
 		require.NoError(t, withWriter(operation.RemoveByPrefix(r, prefix)))
 
-		lg := unittest.Logger().With().Logger()
 		// Verify that the keys in the prefix range have been removed
 		for i, key := range keys {
 			var exists bool
 			require.NoError(t, operation.Exists(key, &exists)(r))
-			lg.Info().Msgf("key %x exists: %t", key, exists)
+			t.Logf("key %x exists: %t", key, exists)
 
 			deleted := includeStart <= i && i <= includeEnd
 
-			// deleted item should not exist
+			// An item that was not deleted must exist
 			require.Equal(t, !deleted, exists,
 				"expected key %x to be %s", key, map[bool]string{true: "deleted", false: "not deleted"})
 		}
diff --git a/storage/operations.go b/storage/operations.go
index c261d4ba28c..e0fe101f636 100644
--- a/storage/operations.go
+++ b/storage/operations.go
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@ import (
 
 // Iterator is an interface for iterating over key-value pairs in a storage backend.
 type Iterator interface {
-	// SeekGE seeks to the smallest key greater than or equal to the given key.
-	SeekGE()
+	// First seeks to the smallest key greater than or equal to the given key.
+	First()
 
 	// Valid returns whether the iterator is positioned at a valid key-value pair.
 	Valid() bool
@@ -15,10 +15,11 @@ type Iterator interface {
 	// Next advances the iterator to the next key-value pair.
 	Next()
 
-	// Key returns the key of the current key-value pair, or nil if done.
+	// IterItem returns the current key-value pair, or nil if done.
 	IterItem() IterItem
 
 	// Close closes the iterator. Iterator must be closed, otherwise it causes memory leak.
+	// No errors expected during normal operation
 	Close() error
 }
 
@@ -28,6 +29,7 @@ type IterItem interface {
 
 	// Value returns the value of the current key-value pair
 	// The reason it takes a function is to follow badgerDB's API pattern
+	// No errors expected during normal operation
 	Value(func(val []byte) error) error
 }
 
@@ -44,6 +46,7 @@ func DefaultIteratorOptions() IteratorOption {
 type Reader interface {
 	// Get gets the value for the given key. It returns ErrNotFound if the DB
 	// does not contain the key.
+	// other errors are exceptions
 	//
 	// The caller should not modify the contents of the returned slice, but it is
 	// safe to modify the contents of the argument after Get returns. The
@@ -51,7 +54,11 @@ type Reader interface {
 	// success, the caller MUST call closer.Close() or a memory leak will occur.
 	Get(key []byte) (value []byte, closer io.Closer, err error)
 
-	// NewIter returns a new Iterator for the given key range [startPrefix, endPrefix], both inclusive.
+	// NewIter returns a new Iterator for the given key prefix range [startPrefix, endPrefix], both inclusive.
+	// Specifically, all keys that meet ANY of the following conditions are included in the iteration:
+	//   - have a prefix equal to startPrefix OR
+	//   - have a prefix equal to the endPrefix OR
+	//   - have a prefix that is lexicographically between startPrefix and endPrefix
 	NewIter(startPrefix, endPrefix []byte, ops IteratorOption) (Iterator, error)
 }
 
@@ -61,20 +68,26 @@ type Writer interface {
 	// for that key; a DB is not a multi-map.
 	//
 	// It is safe to modify the contents of the arguments after Set returns.
+	// No errors expected during normal operation
 	Set(k, v []byte) error
 
 	// Delete deletes the value for the given key. Deletes are blind all will
 	// succeed even if the given key does not exist.
 	//
 	// It is safe to modify the contents of the arguments after Delete returns.
+	// No errors expected during normal operation
 	Delete(key []byte) error
 
 	// DeleteByRange removes all keys with a prefix that falls within the
 	// range [start, end], both inclusive.
+	// No errors expected during normal operation
 	DeleteByRange(globalReader Reader, startPrefix, endPrefix []byte) error
 }
 
 // ReaderBatchWriter is an interface for reading and writing to a storage backend.
+// It is useful for performing a related sequence of reads and writes, after which you would like
+// to modify some non-database state if the sequence completed successfully (via AddCallback).
+// If you are not using AddCallback, avoid using ReaderBatchWriter: use Reader and Writer directly.
 type ReaderBatchWriter interface {
 	// GlobalReader returns a database-backed reader which reads the latest committed global database state ("read-committed isolation").
 	// This reader will not read writes written to ReaderBatchWriter.Writer until the write batch is committed.
@@ -104,21 +117,21 @@ func OnCommitSucceed(b ReaderBatchWriter, onSuccessFn func()) {
 }
 
 func StartEndPrefixToLowerUpperBound(startPrefix, endPrefix []byte) (lowerBound, upperBound []byte) {
-	// LowerBound specifies the smallest key to iterate and it's inclusive.
-	// UpperBound specifies the largest key to iterate and it's exclusive (not inclusive)
-	// in order to match all keys prefixed with the `end` bytes, we increment the bytes of end by 1,
+	// Return value lowerBound specifies the smallest key to iterate and it's inclusive.
+	// Return value upperBound specifies the largest key to iterate and it's exclusive (not inclusive)
+	// in order to match all keys prefixed with `endPrefix`, we increment the bytes of `endPrefix` by 1,
 	// for instance, to iterate keys between "hello" and "world",
 	// we use "hello" as LowerBound, "worle" as UpperBound, so that "world", "world1", "worldffff...ffff"
 	// will all be included.
-	return startPrefix, prefixUpperBound(endPrefix)
+	return startPrefix, PrefixUpperBound(endPrefix)
 }
 
-// prefixUpperBound returns a key K such that all possible keys beginning with the input prefix
+// PrefixUpperBound returns a key K such that all possible keys beginning with the input prefix
 // sort lower than K according to the byte-wise lexicographic key ordering used by Pebble.
 // This is used to define an upper bound for iteration, when we want to iterate over
 // all keys beginning with a given prefix.
 // referred to https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/cockroachdb/pebble#example-Iterator-PrefixIteration
-func prefixUpperBound(prefix []byte) []byte {
+func PrefixUpperBound(prefix []byte) []byte {
 	end := make([]byte, len(prefix))
 	copy(end, prefix)
 	for i := len(end) - 1; i >= 0; i-- {
diff --git a/utils/unittest/unittest.go b/utils/unittest/unittest.go
index d15f39cd27c..5edcd3d477e 100644
--- a/utils/unittest/unittest.go
+++ b/utils/unittest/unittest.go
@@ -408,34 +408,6 @@ func TypedPebbleDB(t testing.TB, dir string, create func(string, *pebble.Options
 	return db
 }
 
-type PebbleWrapper struct {
-	db *pebble.DB
-}
-
-func (p *PebbleWrapper) View(fn func(pebble.Reader) error) error {
-	return fn(p.db)
-}
-
-func (p *PebbleWrapper) Update(fn func(pebble.Writer) error) error {
-	return fn(p.db)
-}
-
-func (p *PebbleWrapper) DB() *pebble.DB {
-	return p.db
-}
-
-func RunWithWrappedPebbleDB(t testing.TB, f func(p *PebbleWrapper)) {
-	RunWithTempDir(t, func(dir string) {
-		db, err := pebble.Open(dir, &pebble.Options{})
-		require.NoError(t, err)
-		defer func() {
-			assert.NoError(t, db.Close())
-		}()
-		f(&PebbleWrapper{db})
-	})
-
-}
-
 func RunWithTypedPebbleDB(
 	t testing.TB,
 	create func(string, *pebble.Options) (*pebble.DB, error),