diff --git a/plugins/currency/bitcoin/bitcoind_ b/plugins/currency/bitcoin/bitcoind_
index efc50efe..8a5c9d76 100755
--- a/plugins/currency/bitcoin/bitcoind_
+++ b/plugins/currency/bitcoin/bitcoind_
@@ -235,7 +235,7 @@ class Proxy(object):
             'params': args,
             'id': self.id,
             }
-        request = urllib.request.Request(self.service.url, json.dumps(data))
+        request = urllib.request.Request(self.service.url, json.dumps(data).encode())
         if self.service.username:
             auth_string = '%s:%s' % (self.service.username, self.service.password)
             auth_b64 = base64.urlsafe_b64encode(auth_string.encode()).decode()