diff --git a/lib/core/engine.js b/lib/core/engine.js
index 9b1795c3..2edc10a4 100644
--- a/lib/core/engine.js
+++ b/lib/core/engine.js
@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-let http = require('http');
 let Web3 = require('web3');
 let utils = require('../utils/utils.js');
 let Events = require('./events.js');
@@ -181,7 +180,7 @@ class Engine {
           //Ideally this method should be in an IPFS API JSONRPC wrapper
           //The URL should also be flexible to accept non-default IPFS url
           self.logger.trace("Checking IPFS version...");
-          http.get('http://localhost:5001/api/v0/version', function (res) {
+          utils.httpGet('http://localhost:5001/api/v0/version', function (res) {
             let body = '';
             res.on('data', function (d) {
               body += d;
diff --git a/lib/utils/utils.js b/lib/utils/utils.js
index 8828cd31..3460f181 100644
--- a/lib/utils/utils.js
+++ b/lib/utils/utils.js
@@ -29,6 +29,10 @@ function checkIsAvailable(url, callback) {
   });
 }
 
+function httpGet(url, callback) {
+  return http.get(url, callback);
+}
+
 function runCmd(cmd, options) {
   let result = shelljs.exec(cmd, options || {silent: true});
   if (result.code !== 0) {
@@ -60,6 +64,7 @@ module.exports = {
   fileMatchesPattern: fileMatchesPattern,
   recursiveMerge: recursiveMerge,
   checkIsAvailable: checkIsAvailable,
+  httpGet: httpGet,
   runCmd: runCmd,
   cd: cd,
   sed: sed,