diff --git a/contrib/linearize/linearize-data.py b/contrib/linearize/linearize-data.py
index aa338ea758..78cee67145 100755
--- a/contrib/linearize/linearize-data.py
+++ b/contrib/linearize/linearize-data.py
@@ -17,7 +17,6 @@ import datetime
 import time
 import glob
 from collections import namedtuple
-from binascii import unhexlify
 
 settings = {}
 
@@ -324,7 +323,7 @@ if __name__ == '__main__':
     settings['max_out_sz'] = int(settings['max_out_sz'])
     settings['split_timestamp'] = int(settings['split_timestamp'])
     settings['file_timestamp'] = int(settings['file_timestamp'])
-    settings['netmagic'] = unhexlify(settings['netmagic'].encode('utf-8'))
+    settings['netmagic'] = bytes.fromhex(settings['netmagic'])
     settings['out_of_order_cache_sz'] = int(settings['out_of_order_cache_sz'])
     settings['debug_output'] = settings['debug_output'].lower()
 
diff --git a/share/rpcauth/rpcauth.py b/share/rpcauth/rpcauth.py
index b27bb54363..6303d33e4e 100755
--- a/share/rpcauth/rpcauth.py
+++ b/share/rpcauth/rpcauth.py
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@
 
 from argparse import ArgumentParser
 from base64 import urlsafe_b64encode
-from binascii import hexlify
 from getpass import getpass
 from os import urandom
 
@@ -13,7 +12,7 @@ import hmac
 
 def generate_salt(size):
     """Create size byte hex salt"""
-    return hexlify(urandom(size)).decode()
+    return urandom(size).hex()
 
 def generate_password():
     """Create 32 byte b64 password"""
diff --git a/src/test/serfloat_tests.cpp b/src/test/serfloat_tests.cpp
index 7876c0bcda..15612e2950 100644
--- a/src/test/serfloat_tests.cpp
+++ b/src/test/serfloat_tests.cpp
@@ -102,11 +102,12 @@ BOOST_AUTO_TEST_CASE(double_serfloat_tests) {
 Python code to generate the below hashes:
 
     def reversed_hex(x):
-        return binascii.hexlify(''.join(reversed(x)))
+        return bytes(reversed(x)).hex()
+
     def dsha256(x):
         return hashlib.sha256(hashlib.sha256(x).digest()).digest()
 
-    reversed_hex(dsha256(''.join(struct.pack('<d', x) for x in range(0,1000)))) == '43d0c82591953c4eafe114590d392676a01585d25b25d433557f0d7878b23f96'
+    reversed_hex(dsha256(b''.join(struct.pack('<d', x) for x in range(0,1000)))) == '43d0c82591953c4eafe114590d392676a01585d25b25d433557f0d7878b23f96'
 */
 BOOST_AUTO_TEST_CASE(doubles)
 {
diff --git a/test/util/bitcoin-util-test.py b/test/util/bitcoin-util-test.py
index 4d89233291..1f7c09439d 100755
--- a/test/util/bitcoin-util-test.py
+++ b/test/util/bitcoin-util-test.py
@@ -10,7 +10,6 @@ Runs automatically during `make check`.
 Can also be run manually."""
 
 import argparse
-import binascii
 import configparser
 import difflib
 import json
@@ -167,7 +166,7 @@ def parse_output(a, fmt):
     if fmt == 'json':  # json: compare parsed data
         return json.loads(a)
     elif fmt == 'hex':  # hex: parse and compare binary data
-        return binascii.a2b_hex(a.strip())
+        return bytes.fromhex(a.strip())
     else:
         raise NotImplementedError("Don't know how to compare %s" % fmt)