diff --git a/peer/example_test.go b/peer/example_test.go
index cb67683b..d4662a2b 100644
--- a/peer/example_test.go
+++ b/peer/example_test.go
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ func mockRemotePeer() error {
 		UserAgentVersion: "1.0.0", // User agent version to advertise.
 		ChainParams:      &chaincfg.SimNetParams,
 		TrickleInterval:  time.Second * 10,
+		AllowSelfConns:   true,
 	}
 
 	// Accept connections on the simnet port.
@@ -81,6 +82,7 @@ func Example_newOutboundPeer() {
 				verack <- struct{}{}
 			},
 		},
+		AllowSelfConns: true,
 	}
 	p, err := peer.NewOutboundPeer(peerCfg, "127.0.0.1:18555")
 	if err != nil {
diff --git a/peer/export_test.go b/peer/export_test.go
deleted file mode 100644
index 06ec78a1..00000000
--- a/peer/export_test.go
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,18 +0,0 @@
-// Copyright (c) 2015 The btcsuite developers
-// Use of this source code is governed by an ISC
-// license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
-
-/*
-This test file is part of the peer package rather than than the peer_test
-package so it can bridge access to the internals to properly test cases which
-are either not possible or can't reliably be tested via the public interface.
-The functions are only exported while the tests are being run.
-*/
-
-package peer
-
-// TstAllowSelfConns allows the test package to allow self connections by
-// disabling the detection logic.
-func TstAllowSelfConns() {
-	allowSelfConns = true
-}
diff --git a/peer/peer.go b/peer/peer.go
index 5b083a74..92ac3d27 100644
--- a/peer/peer.go
+++ b/peer/peer.go
@@ -84,11 +84,6 @@ var (
 	// sentNonces houses the unique nonces that are generated when pushing
 	// version messages that are used to detect self connections.
 	sentNonces = lru.NewCache(50)
-
-	// allowSelfConns is only used to allow the tests to bypass the self
-	// connection detecting and disconnect logic since they intentionally
-	// do so for testing purposes.
-	allowSelfConns bool
 )
 
 // MessageListeners defines callback function pointers to invoke with message
@@ -276,6 +271,11 @@ type Config struct {
 	// TrickleInterval is the duration of the ticker which trickles down the
 	// inventory to a peer.
 	TrickleInterval time.Duration
+
+	// AllowSelfConns is only used to allow the tests to bypass the self
+	// connection detecting and disconnect logic since they intentionally
+	// do so for testing purposes.
+	AllowSelfConns bool
 }
 
 // minUint32 is a helper function to return the minimum of two uint32s.
@@ -1896,7 +1896,7 @@ func (p *Peer) readRemoteVersionMsg() error {
 	}
 
 	// Detect self connections.
-	if !allowSelfConns && sentNonces.Contains(msg.Nonce) {
+	if !p.cfg.AllowSelfConns && sentNonces.Contains(msg.Nonce) {
 		return errors.New("disconnecting peer connected to self")
 	}
 
diff --git a/peer/peer_test.go b/peer/peer_test.go
index 6cc3113d..dd7f36aa 100644
--- a/peer/peer_test.go
+++ b/peer/peer_test.go
@@ -238,6 +238,7 @@ func TestPeerConnection(t *testing.T) {
 		ProtocolVersion:   wire.RejectVersion, // Configure with older version
 		Services:          0,
 		TrickleInterval:   time.Second * 10,
+		AllowSelfConns:    true,
 	}
 	peer2Cfg := &peer.Config{
 		Listeners:         peer1Cfg.Listeners,
@@ -247,6 +248,7 @@ func TestPeerConnection(t *testing.T) {
 		ChainParams:       &chaincfg.MainNetParams,
 		Services:          wire.SFNodeNetwork | wire.SFNodeWitness,
 		TrickleInterval:   time.Second * 10,
+		AllowSelfConns:    true,
 	}
 
 	wantStats1 := peerStats{
@@ -452,6 +454,7 @@ func TestPeerListeners(t *testing.T) {
 		ChainParams:       &chaincfg.MainNetParams,
 		Services:          wire.SFNodeBloom,
 		TrickleInterval:   time.Second * 10,
+		AllowSelfConns:    true,
 	}
 	inConn, outConn := pipe(
 		&conn{raddr: "10.0.0.1:8333"},
@@ -623,6 +626,7 @@ func TestOutboundPeer(t *testing.T) {
 		ChainParams:       &chaincfg.MainNetParams,
 		Services:          0,
 		TrickleInterval:   time.Second * 10,
+		AllowSelfConns:    true,
 	}
 
 	r, w := io.Pipe()
@@ -764,6 +768,7 @@ func TestUnsupportedVersionPeer(t *testing.T) {
 		ChainParams:       &chaincfg.MainNetParams,
 		Services:          0,
 		TrickleInterval:   time.Second * 10,
+		AllowSelfConns:    true,
 	}
 
 	localNA := wire.NewNetAddressIPPort(
@@ -874,6 +879,7 @@ func TestDuplicateVersionMsg(t *testing.T) {
 		UserAgentVersion: "1.0",
 		ChainParams:      &chaincfg.MainNetParams,
 		Services:         0,
+		AllowSelfConns:   true,
 	}
 	inConn, outConn := pipe(
 		&conn{laddr: "10.0.0.1:9108", raddr: "10.0.0.2:9108"},
@@ -935,6 +941,7 @@ func TestUpdateLastBlockHeight(t *testing.T) {
 		UserAgentVersion: "1.0",
 		ChainParams:      &chaincfg.MainNetParams,
 		Services:         0,
+		AllowSelfConns:   true,
 	}
 	remotePeerCfg := peerCfg
 	remotePeerCfg.NewestBlock = func() (*chainhash.Hash, int32, error) {
@@ -982,8 +989,3 @@ func TestUpdateLastBlockHeight(t *testing.T) {
 			remotePeerHeight+1)
 	}
 }
-
-func init() {
-	// Allow self connection when running the tests.
-	peer.TstAllowSelfConns()
-}