diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index d1633be..07a6c03 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ setup(
         "rlp>=0.4.6",
         "gevent>=1.1.1",
         "ethereum-abi-utils>=0.2.1",
+        "pysha3==0.3",
     ],
     py_modules=['web3'],
     license="MIT",
diff --git a/web3/utils/string.py b/web3/utils/string.py
index fc6629b..e1976b6 100644
--- a/web3/utils/string.py
+++ b/web3/utils/string.py
@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-import sys
 import functools
 import codecs
 
@@ -8,38 +7,23 @@ from .types import (
     is_string,
 )
 
-if sys.version_info.major == 2:
-    def force_bytes(value):
-        if is_bytes(value):
-            return str(value)
-        elif is_text(value):
-            return codecs.encode(value, "iso-8859-1")
-        else:
-            raise TypeError("Unsupported type: {0}".format(type(value)))
 
-    def force_text(value):
-        if is_text(value):
-            return value
-        elif is_bytes(value):
-            return codecs.decode(force_bytes(value), "iso-8859-1")
-        else:
-            raise TypeError("Unsupported type: {0}".format(type(value)))
-else:
-    def force_bytes(value):
-        if is_bytes(value):
-            return bytes(value)
-        elif is_text(value):
-            return codecs.encode(value, encoding="iso-8859-1")
-        else:
-            raise TypeError("Unsupported type: {0}".format(type(value)))
+def force_bytes(value):
+    if is_bytes(value):
+        return bytes(value)
+    elif is_text(value):
+        return codecs.encode(value, "iso-8859-1")
+    else:
+        raise TypeError("Unsupported type: {0}".format(type(value)))
 
-    def force_text(value):
-        if is_text(value):
-            return value
-        elif is_bytes(value):
-            return codecs.decode(value, encoding="iso-8859-1")
-        else:
-            raise TypeError("Unsupported type: {0}".format(type(value)))
+
+def force_text(value):
+    if is_text(value):
+        return value
+    elif is_bytes(value):
+        return codecs.decode(value, "iso-8859-1")
+    else:
+        raise TypeError("Unsupported type: {0}".format(type(value)))
 
 
 def force_obj_to_bytes(obj):