diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 2db6350..e43e64f 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,6 +2,14 @@
 All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
 This project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/).
 
+## [2.4.4] - 2015-04-14
+### Changed
+- Separated key utilities into its own Gem
+
+## [2.4.3] - 2015-04-13
+### Changed
+- Loosened production gem requirements from patch level to major level
+
 ## [2.4.2] - 2015-03-11
 ### Fixed
 - GitHub issue 39: handling post paths that include a ? and require a token. A workaround exists for this issue.
diff --git a/Gemfile b/Gemfile
index 2c185d2..851fabc 100644
--- a/Gemfile
+++ b/Gemfile
@@ -1,6 +1,2 @@
 source 'https://rubygems.org'
 gemspec
-
-platform :jruby do
-  gem 'jruby-openssl'
-end
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/bitpay-sdk.gemspec b/bitpay-sdk.gemspec
index aae63a1..92b0d84 100644
--- a/bitpay-sdk.gemspec
+++ b/bitpay-sdk.gemspec
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ Gem::Specification.new do |s|
 
   s.add_dependency 'json',      '~>1.8'
   s.add_dependency 'rack',      '~>1.5'
-  s.add_dependency 'ecdsa',     '~>1.2'
+  s.add_dependency 'bitpay-key-utils', '~>2.0.0'
 
   s.add_development_dependency 'rake', '10.3.2'
   s.add_development_dependency 'webmock', '1.18.0'
diff --git a/features/step_definitions/refund_steps.rb b/features/step_definitions/refund_steps.rb
index 5925825..7baffa1 100644
--- a/features/step_definitions/refund_steps.rb
+++ b/features/step_definitions/refund_steps.rb
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@
 end
 
 Given(/^a properly formatted cancellation request$/) do
+  sleep(1)
   client = new_client_from_stored_values
   @refund_id = client.get_all_refunds_for_invoice(id: REFUND_TRANSACTION).first["id"]
   @response = client.cancel_refund(invoice_id: REFUND_TRANSACTION, request_id: @refund_id)
diff --git a/lib/bitpay/client.rb b/lib/bitpay/client.rb
index 9d8359a..20f68b4 100644
--- a/lib/bitpay/client.rb
+++ b/lib/bitpay/client.rb
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 require 'net/https'
 require 'json'
 
-require_relative 'key_utils'
+require 'bitpay_key_utils'
 require_relative 'rest_connector'
 
 module BitPay
diff --git a/lib/bitpay/key_utils.rb b/lib/bitpay/key_utils.rb
deleted file mode 100644
index c102204..0000000
--- a/lib/bitpay/key_utils.rb
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,124 +0,0 @@
-# license Copyright 2011-2014 BitPay, Inc., MIT License
-# see http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT
-# or https://github.com/bitpay/php-bitpay-client/blob/master/LICENSE
-
-require 'uri'
-require 'net/https'
-require 'json'
-require 'openssl'
-require 'ecdsa'
-require 'securerandom'
-require 'digest/sha2'
-require 'cgi'
-
-module BitPay
-  class KeyUtils
-    class << self
-      def nonce
-        Time.now.utc.strftime('%Y%m%d%H%M%S%L')
-      end
-
-      ## Generates a new private key 
-      #
-
-      def generate_pem
-        key = OpenSSL::PKey::EC.new("secp256k1")
-        key.generate_key
-        key.to_pem
-      end
-
-      def create_key pem
-        OpenSSL::PKey::EC.new(pem)
-      end
-
-      def create_new_key
-        key = OpenSSL::PKey::EC.new("secp256k1")
-        key.generate_key
-        key
-      end
-
-      def get_private_key key
-        key.private_key.to_int.to_s(16)
-      end
-
-      def get_public_key key 
-        key.public_key.group.point_conversion_form = :compressed
-        key.public_key.to_bn.to_s(16).downcase
-      end
-
-      def get_private_key_from_pem pem
-        raise BitPayError, MISSING_PEM unless pem
-        key = OpenSSL::PKey::EC.new(pem)
-        get_private_key key
-      end
-
-      def get_public_key_from_pem pem
-        raise BitPayError, MISSING_PEM unless pem
-        key = OpenSSL::PKey::EC.new(pem)
-        get_public_key key
-      end
-
-      def generate_sin_from_pem pem
-        #http://blog.bitpay.com/2014/07/01/bitauth-for-decentralized-authentication.html
-        #https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Identity_protocol_v1
-
-        # NOTE:  All Digests are calculated against the binary representation, 
-        # hence the requirement to use [].pack("H*") to convert to binary for each step
-        
-        #Generate Private Key
-        key = OpenSSL::PKey::EC.new pem
-        key.public_key.group.point_conversion_form = :compressed
-        public_key = key.public_key.to_bn.to_s(2)
-        step_one = Digest::SHA256.hexdigest(public_key)
-        step_two = Digest::RMD160.hexdigest([step_one].pack("H*")) 
-        step_three = "0F02" + step_two
-        step_four_a = Digest::SHA256.hexdigest([step_three].pack("H*"))
-        step_four = Digest::SHA256.hexdigest([step_four_a].pack("H*"))
-        step_five = step_four[0..7]
-        step_six = step_three + step_five
-        encode_base58(step_six)
-      end
-      
-      
-    ## Generate ECDSA signature
-    #  This is the last method that requires the ecdsa gem, which we would like to replace
-
-      def sign(message, privkey)
-        group = ECDSA::Group::Secp256k1
-        digest = Digest::SHA256.digest(message)
-        signature = nil
-        while signature.nil?
-          temp_key = 1 + SecureRandom.random_number(group.order - 1)
-          signature = ECDSA.sign(group, privkey.to_i(16), digest, temp_key)
-          return ECDSA::Format::SignatureDerString.encode(signature).unpack("H*").first
-        end
-      end
-  
-########## Private Class Methods ################
-
-    ## Base58 Encoding Method
-    #
-      private
-      def encode_base58 (data) 
-        code_string = "123456789ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijkmnopqrstuvwxyz"
-        base = 58
-        x = data.hex
-        output_string = ""
-        
-        while x > 0 do
-          remainder = x % base
-          x = x / base
-          output_string << code_string[remainder]
-        end
-
-        pos = 0
-        while data[pos,2] == "00" do
-          output_string << code_string[0]
-          pos += 2
-        end
-
-       output_string.reverse()
-      end
-    end
-  end
-end
diff --git a/lib/bitpay/version.rb b/lib/bitpay/version.rb
index 80c17ed..5e6bf3d 100644
--- a/lib/bitpay/version.rb
+++ b/lib/bitpay/version.rb
@@ -3,5 +3,5 @@
 # or https://github.com/bitpay/php-bitpay-client/blob/master/LICENSE
 
 module BitPay
-  VERSION = '2.4.3'
+  VERSION = '2.4.4'
 end
diff --git a/lib/bitpay_sdk.rb b/lib/bitpay_sdk.rb
index d0fd642..53dd0d0 100644
--- a/lib/bitpay_sdk.rb
+++ b/lib/bitpay_sdk.rb
@@ -22,10 +22,7 @@ module BitPay
   # User agent reported to API
   USER_AGENT = 'ruby-bitpay-sdk '+VERSION
   
-  MISSING_PEM = 'No pem file specified. Pass pem string'
-  
   class BitPayError < StandardError; end
-  class ArgumentError < ArgumentError; end
   class ConnectionError < Errno::ECONNREFUSED; end
   
 end
diff --git a/spec/key_utils_spec.rb b/spec/key_utils_spec.rb
deleted file mode 100644
index 65891f2..0000000
--- a/spec/key_utils_spec.rb
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,41 +0,0 @@
-require 'spec_helper'
-
-describe BitPay::KeyUtils do
-  let(:key_utils) {BitPay::KeyUtils}
-
-  describe '.generate_pem' do
-    it 'should generate a pem string' do
-      regex = /BEGIN\ EC\ PRIVATE\ KEY/
-      expect(regex.match(key_utils.generate_pem)).to be_truthy
-    end
-  end
-  
-  describe '.get_public_key_from_pem' do
-    it 'should generate the right public key' do
-      expect(key_utils.get_public_key_from_pem(PEM)).to eq(PUB_KEY)
-    end
-    
-    it 'should get pem from the env if none is passed' do
-      expect(key_utils.get_public_key_from_pem(PEM)).to eq(PUB_KEY)
-    end
-
-  end
-
-  describe '.generate_sin_from_pem' do
-    let(:pem){PEM}
-    let(:sin){CLIENT_ID}
-
-    it 'will return the right sin for the right pem' do
-      expect(key_utils.generate_sin_from_pem(pem)).to eq sin
-    end
-
-  end
-
-  context "errors when priv_key is not provided" do
-    it 'will not retrieve public key' do 
-      expect{key_utils.get_public_key_from_pem(nil)}.to raise_error(BitPay::BitPayError) 
-    end
-
-  end 
-  
-end