diff --git a/Gopkg.lock b/Gopkg.lock
index 8deb06378..9a27f344a 100644
--- a/Gopkg.lock
+++ b/Gopkg.lock
@@ -1,6 +1,13 @@
 # This file is autogenerated, do not edit; changes may be undone by the next 'dep ensure'.
 
 
+[[projects]]
+  digest = "1:5da259989116f6ab5e05a80086c639c82efdbdb799ca07183eb0b660edfd91fe"
+  name = "github.com/DataDog/leveldb"
+  packages = ["."]
+  pruneopts = "UT"
+  revision = "12a0b6e10a5bf779330ed8b7c0f1f39f212d34e2"
+
 [[projects]]
   branch = "master"
   digest = "1:d6afaeed1502aa28e80a4ed0981d570ad91b2579193404256ce672ed0a609e0d"
@@ -161,13 +168,6 @@
   revision = "76626ae9c91c4f2a10f34cad8ce83ea42c93bb75"
   version = "v1.0"
 
-[[projects]]
-  digest = "1:39b27d1381a30421f9813967a5866fba35dc1d4df43a6eefe3b7a5444cb07214"
-  name = "github.com/jmhodges/levigo"
-  packages = ["."]
-  pruneopts = "UT"
-  revision = "c42d9e0ca023e2198120196f842701bb4c55d7b9"
-
 [[projects]]
   branch = "master"
   digest = "1:a64e323dc06b73892e5bb5d040ced475c4645d456038333883f58934abbf6f72"
@@ -511,6 +511,7 @@
   analyzer-name = "dep"
   analyzer-version = 1
   input-imports = [
+    "github.com/DataDog/leveldb",
     "github.com/btcsuite/btcutil/base58",
     "github.com/btcsuite/btcutil/bech32",
     "github.com/ebuchman/fail-test",
@@ -529,7 +530,6 @@
     "github.com/golang/protobuf/proto",
     "github.com/golang/protobuf/ptypes/timestamp",
     "github.com/gorilla/websocket",
-    "github.com/jmhodges/levigo",
     "github.com/pkg/errors",
     "github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus",
     "github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus/promhttp",
diff --git a/Gopkg.toml b/Gopkg.toml
index d3bca19e8..cda7988c5 100644
--- a/Gopkg.toml
+++ b/Gopkg.toml
@@ -73,8 +73,8 @@
 ## Pin to revision
 
 [[override]]
-  name = "github.com/jmhodges/levigo"
-  revision = "c42d9e0ca023e2198120196f842701bb4c55d7b9"
+  name = "github.com/DataDog/leveldb"
+  revision = "12a0b6e10a5bf779330ed8b7c0f1f39f212d34e2"
 
 [[constraint]]
   name = "github.com/ebuchman/fail-test"
diff --git a/config/config.go b/config/config.go
index c0882546f..d0e075477 100644
--- a/config/config.go
+++ b/config/config.go
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ type BaseConfig struct {
 	// and verifying their commits
 	FastSync bool `mapstructure:"fast_sync"`
 
-	// Database backend: leveldb | memdb
+	// Database backend: leveldb | memdb | cleveldb
 	DBBackend string `mapstructure:"db_backend"`
 
 	// Database directory
@@ -587,15 +587,15 @@ type TxIndexConfig struct {
 	// Comma-separated list of tags to index (by default the only tag is "tx.hash")
 	//
 	// You can also index transactions by height by adding "tx.height" tag here.
-	// 
+	//
 	// It's recommended to index only a subset of tags due to possible memory
 	// bloat. This is, of course, depends on the indexer's DB and the volume of
 	// transactions.
 	IndexTags string `mapstructure:"index_tags"`
 
 	// When set to true, tells indexer to index all tags (predefined tags:
-	// "tx.hash", "tx.height" and all tags from DeliverTx responses). 
-	//	
+	// "tx.hash", "tx.height" and all tags from DeliverTx responses).
+	//
 	// Note this may be not desirable (see the comment above). IndexTags has a
 	// precedence over IndexAllTags (i.e. when given both, IndexTags will be
 	// indexed).
diff --git a/config/toml.go b/config/toml.go
index 2a35d7c36..9beb9d799 100644
--- a/config/toml.go
+++ b/config/toml.go
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ moniker = "{{ .BaseConfig.Moniker }}"
 # and verifying their commits
 fast_sync = {{ .BaseConfig.FastSync }}
 
-# Database backend: leveldb | memdb
+# Database backend: leveldb | memdb | cleveldb
 db_backend = "{{ .BaseConfig.DBBackend }}"
 
 # Database directory
diff --git a/docs/introduction/install.md b/docs/introduction/install.md
index 10b66dad0..925ed2a80 100644
--- a/docs/introduction/install.md
+++ b/docs/introduction/install.md
@@ -48,6 +48,15 @@ to put the binary in `./build`.
 
 The latest `tendermint version` is now installed.
 
+## Run
+
+To start a one-node blockchain with a simple in-process application:
+
+```
+tendermint init
+tendermint node --proxy_app=kvstore
+```
+
 ## Reinstall
 
 If you already have Tendermint installed, and you make updates, simply
@@ -66,11 +75,35 @@ make get_vendor_deps
 make install
 ```
 
-## Run
+## Compile with CLevelDB support
 
-To start a one-node blockchain with a simple in-process application:
+Make sure you have a roughly compatible version of libstdc++ (tested with
+5.3.1). For example, on Ubuntu:
 
 ```
-tendermint init
-tendermint node --proxy_app=kvstore
+sudo apt-get update
+sudo apt-get install gcc
+sudo apt-cache show libstdc++6
+Version: 5.3.1-14ubuntu2
+```
+
+Check out leveldb dependency using git (for some reason dep does not check out
+submodules):
+
+```
+cd vendor/github.com/DataDog && rm -rf leveldb
+git clone https://github.com/DataDog/leveldb.git
+```
+
+Set database backend to cleveldb:
+
+```
+# config/config.toml
+db_backend = "cleveldb"
+```
+
+To build Tendermint, run
+
+```
+CGO_ENABLED=1 CGO_CXXFLAGS_ALLOW="(-fno-builtin-memcmp|-lpthread)" CGO_CFLAGS_ALLOW="-fno-builtin-memcmp" go build -ldflags "-X github.com/tendermint/tendermint/version.GitCommit=`git rev-parse --short=8 HEAD`" -tags "tendermint gcc" -o build/tendermint ./cmd/tendermint/
 ```
diff --git a/docs/tendermint-core/configuration.md b/docs/tendermint-core/configuration.md
index 7e20277f4..29db12125 100644
--- a/docs/tendermint-core/configuration.md
+++ b/docs/tendermint-core/configuration.md
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ moniker = "anonymous"
 # and verifying their commits
 fast_sync = true
 
-# Database backend: leveldb | memdb
+# Database backend: leveldb | memdb | cleveldb
 db_backend = "leveldb"
 
 # Database directory
diff --git a/libs/db/Makefile b/libs/db/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e0cd45b0a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/libs/db/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+test_gcc:
+	CGO_CXXFLAGS_ALLOW="(-fno-builtin-memcmp|-lpthread)" CGO_CFLAGS_ALLOW="-fno-builtin-memcmp" go test -tags gcc
+
+.PHONY: test_gcc
diff --git a/libs/db/backend_test.go b/libs/db/backend_test.go
index 496f4c410..a93698226 100644
--- a/libs/db/backend_test.go
+++ b/libs/db/backend_test.go
@@ -55,9 +55,10 @@ func TestBackendsGetSetDelete(t *testing.T) {
 
 func withDB(t *testing.T, creator dbCreator, fn func(DB)) {
 	name := fmt.Sprintf("test_%x", cmn.RandStr(12))
-	db, err := creator(name, "")
-	defer cleanupDBDir("", name)
-	assert.Nil(t, err)
+	dir := os.TempDir()
+	db, err := creator(name, dir)
+	require.Nil(t, err)
+	defer cleanupDBDir(dir, name)
 	fn(db)
 	db.Close()
 }
@@ -161,8 +162,9 @@ func TestDBIterator(t *testing.T) {
 
 func testDBIterator(t *testing.T, backend DBBackendType) {
 	name := fmt.Sprintf("test_%x", cmn.RandStr(12))
-	db := NewDB(name, backend, "")
-	defer cleanupDBDir("", name)
+	dir := os.TempDir()
+	db := NewDB(name, backend, dir)
+	defer cleanupDBDir(dir, name)
 
 	for i := 0; i < 10; i++ {
 		if i != 6 { // but skip 6.
diff --git a/libs/db/c_level_db.go b/libs/db/c_level_db.go
index 307461261..10f03aa0c 100644
--- a/libs/db/c_level_db.go
+++ b/libs/db/c_level_db.go
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"path/filepath"
 
-	"github.com/jmhodges/levigo"
+	levigo "github.com/DataDog/leveldb"
 )
 
 func init() {
diff --git a/libs/db/c_level_db_test.go b/libs/db/c_level_db_test.go
index d01a85e9d..c81b4185a 100644
--- a/libs/db/c_level_db_test.go
+++ b/libs/db/c_level_db_test.go
@@ -5,9 +5,11 @@ package db
 import (
 	"bytes"
 	"fmt"
+	"os"
 	"testing"
 
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
+
 	cmn "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/libs/common"
 )
 
@@ -88,8 +90,9 @@ func bytes2Int64(buf []byte) int64 {
 
 func TestCLevelDBBackend(t *testing.T) {
 	name := fmt.Sprintf("test_%x", cmn.RandStr(12))
-	db := NewDB(name, LevelDBBackend, "")
-	defer cleanupDBDir("", name)
+	dir := os.TempDir()
+	db := NewDB(name, LevelDBBackend, dir)
+	defer cleanupDBDir(dir, name)
 
 	_, ok := db.(*CLevelDB)
 	assert.True(t, ok)