diff --git a/README b/README
index e7b7649..c378542 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -1,13 +1,12 @@
 This is a multi-threaded CPU miner for Litecoin, fork of Jeff Garzik's
 reference cpuminer.
 
-
 License: GPLv2.  See COPYING for details.
 
 Dependencies:
 	libcurl			http://curl.haxx.se/libcurl/
 	jansson			http://www.digip.org/jansson/
-		(jansson is optional, and is included in-tree)
+		(jansson is included in-tree)
 
 Basic *nix build instructions:
 	./autogen.sh	# only needed if building from git repo
@@ -23,6 +22,13 @@ Basic WIN32 build instructions (on Fedora 13; requires mingw32):
 
 Usage instructions:  Run "minerd --help" to see options.
 
+Connecting through a proxy:  Use the --proxy option.
+To use a SOCKS proxy, add a socks4:// or socks5:// prefix to the proxy string.
+If no protocol is specified, the proxy is assumed to be a HTTP proxy.
+When the --proxy option is not used, the program honors the http_proxy
+environment variable.  In this case, however, libcurl 7.21.7 or newer is
+needed to handle protocol prefixes.
+
 Also many issues and FAQs are covered in the forum thread
 dedicated to this program,
 	https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=55038.0
diff --git a/cpu-miner.c b/cpu-miner.c
index 3c2e9ef..ed82f11 100644
--- a/cpu-miner.c
+++ b/cpu-miner.c
@@ -108,6 +108,8 @@ static int num_processors;
 static char *rpc_url;
 static char *rpc_userpass;
 static char *rpc_user, *rpc_pass;
+char *opt_proxy;
+long opt_proxy_type;
 struct thr_info *thr_info;
 static int work_thr_id;
 int longpoll_thr_id;
@@ -126,6 +128,7 @@ Options:\n\
   -O, --userpass=U:P    username:password pair for mining server\n\
   -u, --user=USERNAME   username for mining server\n\
   -p, --pass=PASSWORD   password for mining server\n\
+  -x, --proxy=[PROTOCOL://]HOST[:PORT]  connect through a proxy\n\
   -t, --threads=N       number of miner threads (default: number of processors)\n\
   -r, --retries=N       number of times to retry if a network call fails\n\
                           (default: retry indefinitely)\n\
@@ -147,7 +150,7 @@ Options:\n\
   -h, --help            display this help text and exit\n\
 ";
 
-static char const short_options[] = "a:c:Dhp:Pqr:R:s:t:T:o:u:O:V";
+static char const short_options[] = "a:c:Dhp:Px:qr:R:s:t:T:o:u:O:V";
 
 static struct option const options[] = {
 	{ "algo", 1, NULL, 'a' },
@@ -157,6 +160,7 @@ static struct option const options[] = {
 	{ "no-longpoll", 0, NULL, 1003 },
 	{ "pass", 1, NULL, 'p' },
 	{ "protocol-dump", 0, NULL, 'P' },
+	{ "proxy", 1, NULL, 'x' },
 	{ "quiet", 0, NULL, 'q' },
 	{ "retries", 1, NULL, 'r' },
 	{ "retry-pause", 1, NULL, 'R' },
@@ -786,6 +790,22 @@ static void parse_arg (int key, char *arg)
 		free(rpc_userpass);
 		rpc_userpass = strdup(arg);
 		break;
+	case 'x':			/* --proxy */
+		if (!strncmp(arg, "socks4://", 9))
+			opt_proxy_type = CURLPROXY_SOCKS4;
+		else if (!strncmp(arg, "socks5://", 9))
+			opt_proxy_type = CURLPROXY_SOCKS5;
+#if LIBCURL_VERSION_NUM >= 0x071200
+		else if (!strncmp(arg, "socks4a://", 10))
+			opt_proxy_type = CURLPROXY_SOCKS4A;
+		else if (!strncmp(arg, "socks5h://", 10))
+			opt_proxy_type = CURLPROXY_SOCKS5_HOSTNAME;
+#endif
+		else
+			opt_proxy_type = CURLPROXY_HTTP;
+		free(opt_proxy);
+		opt_proxy = strdup(arg);
+		break;
 	case 1003:
 		want_longpoll = false;
 		break;
diff --git a/miner.h b/miner.h
index b27e9ec..c67a0c9 100644
--- a/miner.h
+++ b/miner.h
@@ -140,6 +140,8 @@ extern bool fulltest(const unsigned char *hash, const unsigned char *target);
 extern int opt_timeout;
 extern bool want_longpoll;
 extern bool have_longpoll;
+extern char *opt_proxy;
+extern long opt_proxy_type;
 struct thread_q;
 
 struct work_restart {
diff --git a/util.c b/util.c
index 67da100..4a2b826 100644
--- a/util.c
+++ b/util.c
@@ -291,6 +291,10 @@ json_t *json_rpc_call(CURL *curl, const char *url,
 		curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_HEADERFUNCTION, resp_hdr_cb);
 		curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_HEADERDATA, &hi);
 	}
+	if (opt_proxy) {
+		curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_PROXY, opt_proxy);
+		curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_PROXYTYPE, opt_proxy_type);
+	}
 	if (userpass) {
 		curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_USERPWD, userpass);
 		curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_HTTPAUTH, CURLAUTH_BASIC);