diff --git a/floodsub.go b/floodsub.go
index 0d7dec5e4d0c666a212a35c24d4434cc0e2ba12b..adefd5f6659bcf22b0b9666fa8896ead206a97c7 100644
--- a/floodsub.go
+++ b/floodsub.go
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ import (
 
 	pb "github.com/libp2p/go-floodsub/pb"
 
-	proto "github.com/gogo/protobuf/proto"
 	logging "github.com/ipfs/go-log"
 	host "github.com/libp2p/go-libp2p-host"
 	inet "github.com/libp2p/go-libp2p-net"
@@ -401,7 +400,7 @@ func (p *PubSub) Publish(topic string, data []byte) error {
 		&pb.Message{
 			Data:     data,
 			TopicIDs: []string{topic},
-			From:     proto.String(string(p.host.ID())),
+			From:     []byte(p.host.ID()),
 			Seqno:    seqno,
 		},
 	}
diff --git a/pb/rpc.pb.go b/pb/rpc.pb.go
index 2418c4c05f4b9399a2a982b248e21024d4cda80d..a5933c03379c000bd3a6930b8bd10d506df4d650 100644
--- a/pb/rpc.pb.go
+++ b/pb/rpc.pb.go
@@ -145,7 +145,7 @@ func (m *RPC_SubOpts) GetTopicid() string {
 }
 
 type Message struct {
-	From             *string  `protobuf:"bytes,1,opt,name=from" json:"from,omitempty"`
+	From             []byte   `protobuf:"bytes,1,opt,name=from" json:"from,omitempty"`
 	Data             []byte   `protobuf:"bytes,2,opt,name=data" json:"data,omitempty"`
 	Seqno            []byte   `protobuf:"bytes,3,opt,name=seqno" json:"seqno,omitempty"`
 	TopicIDs         []string `protobuf:"bytes,4,rep,name=topicIDs" json:"topicIDs,omitempty"`
@@ -156,11 +156,11 @@ func (m *Message) Reset()         { *m = Message{} }
 func (m *Message) String() string { return proto.CompactTextString(m) }
 func (*Message) ProtoMessage()    {}
 
-func (m *Message) GetFrom() string {
-	if m != nil && m.From != nil {
-		return *m.From
+func (m *Message) GetFrom() []byte {
+	if m != nil {
+		return m.From
 	}
-	return ""
+	return nil
 }
 
 func (m *Message) GetData() []byte {
diff --git a/pb/rpc.proto b/pb/rpc.proto
index 22f4ca1b64e2ed44523a68011cf91d28b72b7f77..f43d3c1633246063af0658c98b88eb4b59162647 100644
--- a/pb/rpc.proto
+++ b/pb/rpc.proto
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ message RPC {
 }
 
 message Message {
-	optional string from = 1;
+	optional bytes from = 1;
 	optional bytes data = 2;
 	optional bytes seqno = 3;
 	repeated string topicIDs = 4;