diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index adca4887..310c9691 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -8,19 +8,10 @@ with open("README.md", "r") as fh:
 script_dir = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))
 
 VERSION = open(os.path.join(script_dir, 'archivebox', 'VERSION'), 'r').read().strip()
-try:
-    GIT_HEAD = open(os.path.join(script_dir, '.git', 'HEAD'), 'r').read().strip().split(': ')[1]
-    GIT_SHA = open(os.path.join(script_dir, '.git', GIT_HEAD), 'r').read().strip()[:9]
-    PYPI_VERSION = "{}+{}".format(VERSION, GIT_SHA)
-except:
-    PYPI_VERSION = VERSION
-
-with open(os.path.join(script_dir, 'archivebox', 'VERSION'), 'w+') as f:
-    f.write(PYPI_VERSION)
 
 setuptools.setup(
     name="archivebox",
-    version=PYPI_VERSION,
+    version=VERSION,
     author="Nick Sweeting",
     author_email="git@nicksweeting.com",
     description="The self-hosted internet archive.",