diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index 3991498..19fe247 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -56,8 +56,7 @@ Install::
 
   $ python3 -m venv .venv
   $ . .venv/bin/activate
-  (.venv)$ pip install -e .
-  (.venv)$ pip install -r tests/test_requirements.txt
+  (.venv)$ pip install -e .[test]
 
 Run::
 
@@ -75,6 +74,13 @@ Run::
 Change Log
 ----------
 
+1.0.1
+~~~~~
+
+* officially remove Python 2 support that was broken since 1.0.0
+  anyway; now the package works with Python 3.8+ because of a few
+  features
+
 1.0.0
 ~~~~~
 
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..11ff6b6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+[build-system]
+requires = ["setuptools", "setuptools-scm[toml]"]
+build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
+
+[project]
+name = "bitrot"
+authors = [
+    {name = "Łukasz Langa", email = "lukasz@langa.pl"},
+]
+description = "Detects bit rotten files on the hard drive to save your precious photo and music collection from slow decay."
+readme = "README.rst"
+requires-python = ">=3.8"
+keywords = ["file", "checksum", "database"]
+license = {text = "MIT"}
+classifiers = [
+    "Development Status :: 5 - Production/Stable",
+    "Natural Language :: English",
+    "Programming Language :: Python :: 3",
+    "Topic :: System :: Filesystems",
+    "Topic :: System :: Monitoring",
+    "Topic :: Software Development :: Libraries :: Python Modules",
+
+]
+dependencies = []
+dynamic = ["version"]
+
+[project.optional-dependencies]
+test = ["pytest", "pytest-order"]
+
+[project.scripts]
+bitrot = "bitrot:run_from_command_line"
+
+[tool.setuptools_scm]
+tag_regex = "^(?P<version>v\\d+(?:\\.\\d+){0,2}[^\\+]*)(?:\\+.*)?$"
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 8abc00f..0000000
--- a/setup.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,76 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env python
-# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
-
-# Copyright (C) 2013 by Łukasz Langa
-#
-# Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
-# of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
-# in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
-# to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
-# copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
-# furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
-
-# The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
-# all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
-
-# THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
-# IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
-# FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
-# AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
-# LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
-# OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
-# THE SOFTWARE.
-
-import codecs
-import os
-import sys
-from setuptools import setup, find_packages
-
-current_dir = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__))
-ld_file = codecs.open(os.path.join(current_dir, 'README.rst'), encoding='utf8')
-try:
-    long_description = ld_file.read()
-finally:
-    ld_file.close()
-# We let it die a horrible tracebacking death if reading the file fails.
-# We couldn't sensibly recover anyway: we need the long description.
-
-sys.path.insert(0, current_dir + os.sep + 'src')
-from bitrot import VERSION
-release = ".".join(str(num) for num in VERSION)
-
-setup(
-    name = 'bitrot',
-    version = release,
-    author = u'Łukasz Langa',
-    author_email = 'lukasz@langa.pl',
-    description = ("Detects bit rotten files on the hard drive to save your "
-                   "precious photo and music collection from slow decay."),
-    long_description = long_description,
-    url = 'https://github.com/ambv/bitrot/',
-    keywords = 'file checksum database',
-    platforms = ['any'],
-    license = 'MIT',
-    package_dir = {'': 'src'},
-    packages = find_packages('src'),
-    py_modules = ['bitrot'],
-    scripts = ['bin/bitrot'],
-    include_package_data = True,
-    zip_safe = False, # if only because of the readme file
-    install_requires = [
-        'futures; python_version == "2.7"'
-    ],
-    classifiers = [
-        'Development Status :: 4 - Beta',
-        'License :: OSI Approved :: MIT License',
-        'Natural Language :: English',
-        'Programming Language :: Python :: 2.7',
-        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3',
-        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.7',
-        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8',
-        'Programming Language :: Python',
-        'Topic :: System :: Filesystems',
-        'Topic :: System :: Monitoring',
-        'Topic :: Software Development :: Libraries :: Python Modules',
-        ]
-    )
diff --git a/src/bitrot.py b/src/bitrot.py
index 8e49249..94b710b 100755
--- a/src/bitrot.py
+++ b/src/bitrot.py
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env python
-# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
 
 # Copyright (C) 2013 by Łukasz Langa
 
@@ -21,10 +20,7 @@
 # OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
 # THE SOFTWARE.
 
-from __future__ import absolute_import
-from __future__ import division
-from __future__ import print_function
-from __future__ import unicode_literals
+from __future__ import annotations
 
 import argparse
 import atexit
@@ -41,18 +37,17 @@ import time
 import unicodedata
 
 from concurrent.futures import ProcessPoolExecutor, as_completed
+from importlib.metadata import version, PackageNotFoundError
 
 
 DEFAULT_CHUNK_SIZE = 16384  # block size in HFS+; 4X the block size in ext4
 DOT_THRESHOLD = 200
-VERSION = (1, 0, 0)
 IGNORED_FILE_SYSTEM_ERRORS = {errno.ENOENT, errno.EACCES}
 FSENCODING = sys.getfilesystemencoding()
-
-
-if sys.version[0] == '2':
-    str = type(u'text')
-    # use `bytes` for bytestrings
+try:
+    VERSION = version("bitrot")
+except PackageNotFoundError:
+    VERSION = "1.0.1"
 
 
 def normalize_path(path):
@@ -545,7 +540,7 @@ def run_from_command_line():
         help='just test against an existing database, don\'t update anything')
     parser.add_argument(
         '--version', action='version',
-        version='%(prog)s {}.{}.{}'.format(*VERSION))
+        version=f"%(prog)s {VERSION}")
     parser.add_argument(
         '--commit-interval', type=float, default=300,
         help='min time in seconds between commits '
diff --git a/tests/test_bitrot.py b/tests/test_bitrot.py
index c41cbba..35abb5c 100644
--- a/tests/test_bitrot.py
+++ b/tests/test_bitrot.py
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 NOTE: those tests are ordered and require pytest-order to run correctly.
 """
 
+from __future__ import annotations
+
 import getpass
 import os
 from pathlib import Path