diff --git a/plugins/currency/zcash/zcash_flypool_hashrate_ b/plugins/currency/zcash/zcash_flypool_hashrate_
index fbcd4c10..06bb397d 100755
--- a/plugins/currency/zcash/zcash_flypool_hashrate_
+++ b/plugins/currency/zcash/zcash_flypool_hashrate_
@@ -81,10 +81,9 @@ try:
 except IOError as exc:
     print("Failed to request Flypool API: {}".format(exc), file=sys.stderr)
 
-reader = codecs.getreader("utf-8")
 
 try:
-    mining_stats = json.load(reader(mining_stats_raw))
+    mining_stats = json.load(mining_stats_raw)
 except ValueError:
     print("Failed to parse JSON responce.", file=sys.stderr)
     sys.exit(9)