diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c47f1b1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+## lbry-rocksdb
+
+### Note
+The `python-rocksdb` and `pyrocksdb` packages haven't been updated in a long time - this repo is a fork of python-rocksdb with many of the PRs to it merged, and with [bunch of updates and improvements](https://github.com/iFA88/python-rocksdb) from @iFA88 and @mosquito.
+
+
+### Install from pip
+    pip install lbry-rocksdb
+
+
+### Install for development / from source
+    sudo apt install build-essential binutils
+    git clone https://github.com/lbryio/lbry-rocksdb.git
+    cd lbry-rocksdb
+    git submodule update --init --recursive
+    git pull --recurse-submodules
+    make clean && make
+    pip install -e .
+    python -m unittest discover . -v
+
+
+### Quick Usage Guide
+    >>> import rocksdb
+    >>> db = rocksdb.DB("test.db", rocksdb.Options(create_if_missing=True))
+    >>> db.put(b'a', b'data')
+    >>> print db.get(b'a')
+    b'data'
diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
deleted file mode 100644
index f5d4d76..0000000
--- a/README.rst
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,55 +0,0 @@
-Note
-=========
-The original pyrocksdb (https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pyrocksdb/0.4) has not been updated for long time. I update pyrocksdb to support the latest rocksdb. Please open issues in github if you have any problem.
-
-News (2021/08/26 iFA)
-=========
-Thanks for @mosquito (https://github.com/mosquito) who coded a github workflow to build static lib automatically.
-Python version which lower than 3.7 is not supported anymore.
-
-News (2020/09/03 iFA)
-=========
-Python version which lower than 3.0 is not supported anymore.
-
-pyrocksdb
-=========
-
-Python bindings for RocksDB.
-See http://python-rocksdb.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ for a more comprehensive install and usage description.
-
-
-Quick Install
--------------
-
-Quick install for debian/ubuntu like linux distributions.
-
-.. code-block:: bash
-
-    $ apt-get install build-essential libsnappy-dev zlib1g-dev libbz2-dev libgflags-dev liblz4-dev
-    $ git clone https://github.com/facebook/rocksdb.git
-    $ cd rocksdb
-    $ mkdir build && cd build
-    $ cmake ..
-    $ make
-    $ cd ..
-    $ export CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH=${CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH}${CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH:+:}`pwd`/include/
-    $ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}${LD_LIBRARY_PATH:+:}`pwd`/build/
-    $ export LIBRARY_PATH=${LIBRARY_PATH}${LIBRARY_PATH:+:}`pwd`/build/
-
-    $ apt-get install python-virtualenv python-dev
-    $ virtualenv pyrocks_test
-    $ cd pyrocks_test
-    $ . bin/active
-    $ pip install python-rocksdb
-
-
-Quick Usage Guide
------------------
-
-.. code-block:: pycon
-
-    >>> import rocksdb
-    >>> db = rocksdb.DB("test.db", rocksdb.Options(create_if_missing=True))
-    >>> db.put(b'a', b'data')
-    >>> print db.get(b'a')
-    b'data'
diff --git a/rocksdb/__init__.py b/rocksdb/__init__.py
index 0417ff0..6ac6c23 100644
--- a/rocksdb/__init__.py
+++ b/rocksdb/__init__.py
@@ -1 +1,4 @@
 from ._rocksdb import *
+
+ROCKSDB_VERSION = '6.25.3'  # 0103296f39ec3fd89b4cdda9687c63fde90eec24
+__version__ = "0.8.1"
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 5e415cd..935aa16 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import sys
 import platform
 import os
 from setuptools import setup
@@ -14,6 +15,10 @@ except ImportError:
 else:
     SOURCES = ['rocksdb/_rocksdb.pyx']
 
+with open(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'rocksdb', '__init__.py'), 'r') as init_file:
+    version_line = [l for l in init_file.readlines() if l.startswith('__version__ = "')][0]
+    version = version_line.split('__version__ = "')[1][:-2]
+
 EXTRA_COMPILE_ARGS = [
     '-std=c++11',
     '-fPIC',
@@ -60,17 +65,21 @@ if all(map(os.path.exists, STATIC_LIBRARIES)):
         os.path.join("src", "rocksdb", "lz4-1.9.3", "lib"),
         os.path.join("src", "rocksdb", "include"),
     ]
-
+    print("✔️ all static libraries exist in expected locations")
+else:
+    print('✘ missing static library files')
+    sys.exit(1)
 
 setup(
-    name="python-rocksdb",
-    version='0.7.0',
+    name="lbry-rocksdb",
+    version=version,
     keywords=['rocksdb', 'static', 'build'],
     description="Python bindings for RocksDB",
-    long_description=open("README.rst").read(),
-    author='Ming Hsuan Tu',
-    author_email="qrnnis2623891@gmail.com",
-    url="https://github.com/twmht/python-rocksdb",
+    long_description=open("README.md").read(),
+    long_description_content_type='text/markdown',
+    author='Jack Robison',
+    author_email="jackrobison@lbry.com",
+    url="https://github.com/lbryio/lbry-rocksdb",
     license='BSD License',
 	python_requires=">=3.7.0",
     setup_requires=['setuptools>=25', 'Cython>=0.20'],
@@ -88,8 +97,7 @@ setup(
         extra_link_args=EXTRA_LINK_ARGS,
     )]),
     extras_require={
-        "doc": ['sphinx_rtd_theme', 'sphinx'],
-        "test": ['pytest'],
+        "doc": ['sphinx_rtd_theme', 'sphinx']
     },
     include_package_data=False,
     zip_safe=False,