switch away from monkeypatching

conftest.py

@@ -6,15 +6,8 @@ import random
 import pytest
 
 import gevent
-from gevent import monkey
 from gevent import socket
 
-# needed to use the requests library
-monkey.patch_socket()
-monkey.patch_select()
-
-import requests  # noqa: E402
-
 from geth import (  # noqa: E402
     LoggingMixin,
     DevGethProcess,
@@ -37,10 +30,12 @@ def get_open_port():
 def wait_for_http_connection(port, timeout=60):
     with gevent.Timeout(timeout):
         while True:
+            s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
+            s.timeout = 1
             try:
-                requests.post("http://127.0.0.1:{0}".format(port))
-            except requests.ConnectionError:
-                gevent.sleep(0.1)
+                s.connect(('127.0.0.1', port))
+            except (socket.timeout, ConnectionRefusedError):
+                gevent.sleep(random.random())
                 continue
             else:
                 break

setup.py

@@ -26,9 +26,9 @@ setup(
     include_package_data=True,
     install_requires=[
         "pysha3>=0.3",
-        "requests>=2.10.0",
         "rlp>=0.4.6",
         "gevent>=1.1.1",
+        "geventhttpclient>=1.3.1",
         "ethereum-abi-utils>=0.2.1",
         "pysha3>=0.3",
     ],

web3/providers/rpc.py

@@ -1,18 +1,12 @@
+import contextlib
 import gevent
-from gevent import monkey
-
-
-monkey.patch_socket()
-monkey.patch_select()
+from geventhttpclient import HTTPClient
 
 
 from .base import BaseProvider  # noqa: E402
 
-import requests  # noqa: E402
-
 
 class RPCProvider(BaseProvider):
-
     def __init__(self, host="127.0.0.1", port="8545", *args, **kwargs):
         self.host = host
         self.port = port
@@ -20,14 +14,25 @@ class RPCProvider(BaseProvider):
         super(RPCProvider, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
 
     def make_request(self, method, params):
-        request = self.encode_rpc_request(method, params)
-        response = requests.post(
-            "http://{host}:{port}/".format(host=self.host, port=self.port),
-            headers={'content-type': 'application/json'},
-            data=request
+        from web3 import __version__ as web3_version
+        request_data = self.encode_rpc_request(method, params)
+        request_user_agent = 'Web3.py/{version}/{class_name}'.format(
+            version=web3_version,
+            class_name=type(self),
         )
+        client = HTTPClient(
+            host=self.host,
+            port=self.port,
+            headers={
+                'Content-Type': 'application/json',
+                'User-Agent': request_user_agent,
+            },
+        )
+        with contextlib.closing(client):
+            response = client.post('/', body=request_data)
+            response_body = response.read()
 
-        return response.text
+        return response_body
 
 
 def is_testrpc_available():