diff --git a/src/CMakeLists.txt b/src/CMakeLists.txt
--- a/src/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -320,7 +320,7 @@
 	random.cpp
 	randomenv.cpp
 	rcu.cpp
-	rpc/protocol.cpp
+	rpc/request.cpp
 	support/cleanse.cpp
 	support/lockedpool.cpp
 	sync.cpp
@@ -528,7 +528,6 @@
 	rpc/misc.cpp
 	rpc/net.cpp
 	rpc/rawtransaction.cpp
-	rpc/request.cpp
 	rpc/server.cpp
 	script/scriptcache.cpp
 	script/sigcache.cpp
diff --git a/src/Makefile.am b/src/Makefile.am
--- a/src/Makefile.am
+++ b/src/Makefile.am
@@ -209,9 +209,9 @@
   rpc/mining.h \
   rpc/protocol.h \
   rpc/rawtransaction_util.h \
+  rpc/register.h \
   rpc/request.h \
   rpc/server.h \
-  rpc/register.h \
   rpc/util.h \
   rwcollection.h \
   scheduler.h \
@@ -335,7 +335,6 @@
   rpc/misc.cpp \
   rpc/net.cpp \
   rpc/rawtransaction.cpp \
-  rpc/request.cpp \
   rpc/server.cpp \
   script/scriptcache.cpp \
   script/sigcache.cpp \
@@ -542,7 +541,7 @@
   random.cpp \
   randomenv.cpp \
   rcu.cpp \
-  rpc/protocol.cpp \
+  rpc/request.cpp \
   support/cleanse.cpp \
   sync.cpp \
   threadinterrupt.cpp \
diff --git a/src/bitcoin-cli.cpp b/src/bitcoin-cli.cpp
--- a/src/bitcoin-cli.cpp
+++ b/src/bitcoin-cli.cpp
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 #include <fs.h>
 #include <rpc/client.h>
 #include <rpc/protocol.h>
+#include <rpc/request.h>
 #include <support/events.h>
 #include <util/strencodings.h>
 #include <util/system.h>
diff --git a/src/rest.cpp b/src/rest.cpp
--- a/src/rest.cpp
+++ b/src/rest.cpp
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 #include <primitives/block.h>
 #include <primitives/transaction.h>
 #include <rpc/blockchain.h>
+#include <rpc/protocol.h>
 #include <rpc/server.h>
 #include <streams.h>
 #include <sync.h>
diff --git a/src/rpc/protocol.h b/src/rpc/protocol.h
--- a/src/rpc/protocol.h
+++ b/src/rpc/protocol.h
@@ -6,15 +6,6 @@
 #ifndef BITCOIN_RPC_PROTOCOL_H
 #define BITCOIN_RPC_PROTOCOL_H
 
-#include <fs.h>
-
-#include <cstdint>
-#include <list>
-#include <map>
-#include <string>
-
-#include <univalue.h>
-
 //! HTTP status codes
 enum HTTPStatusCode {
     HTTP_OK = 200,
@@ -125,21 +116,4 @@
     RPC_FORBIDDEN_BY_SAFE_MODE = -2,
 };
 
-UniValue JSONRPCRequestObj(const std::string &strMethod, const UniValue &params,
-                           const UniValue &id);
-UniValue JSONRPCReplyObj(const UniValue &result, const UniValue &error,
-                         const UniValue &id);
-std::string JSONRPCReply(const UniValue &result, const UniValue &error,
-                         const UniValue &id);
-UniValue JSONRPCError(int code, const std::string &message);
-
-/** Generate a new RPC authentication cookie and write it to disk */
-bool GenerateAuthCookie(std::string *cookie_out);
-/** Read the RPC authentication cookie from disk */
-bool GetAuthCookie(std::string *cookie_out);
-/** Delete RPC authentication cookie from disk */
-void DeleteAuthCookie();
-/** Parse JSON-RPC batch reply into a vector */
-std::vector<UniValue> JSONRPCProcessBatchReply(const UniValue &in, size_t num);
-
 #endif // BITCOIN_RPC_PROTOCOL_H
diff --git a/src/rpc/protocol.cpp b/src/rpc/protocol.cpp
deleted file mode 100644
--- a/src/rpc/protocol.cpp
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,154 +0,0 @@
-// Copyright (c) 2010 Satoshi Nakamoto
-// Copyright (c) 2009-2016 The Bitcoin Core developers
-// Distributed under the MIT software license, see the accompanying
-// file COPYING or http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php.
-
-#include <rpc/protocol.h>
-
-#include <random.h>
-#include <tinyformat.h>
-#include <util/strencodings.h>
-#include <util/system.h>
-#include <util/time.h>
-
-#include <cstdint>
-
-/**
- * JSON-RPC protocol.  Bitcoin speaks version 1.0 for maximum compatibility, but
- * uses JSON-RPC 1.1/2.0 standards for parts of the 1.0 standard that were
- * unspecified (HTTP errors and contents of 'error').
- *
- * 1.0 spec: http://json-rpc.org/wiki/specification
- * 1.2 spec: http://jsonrpc.org/historical/json-rpc-over-http.html
- */
-
-UniValue JSONRPCRequestObj(const std::string &strMethod, const UniValue &params,
-                           const UniValue &id) {
-    UniValue request(UniValue::VOBJ);
-    request.pushKV("method", strMethod);
-    request.pushKV("params", params);
-    request.pushKV("id", id);
-    return request;
-}
-
-UniValue JSONRPCReplyObj(const UniValue &result, const UniValue &error,
-                         const UniValue &id) {
-    UniValue reply(UniValue::VOBJ);
-    if (!error.isNull()) {
-        reply.pushKV("result", NullUniValue);
-    } else {
-        reply.pushKV("result", result);
-    }
-    reply.pushKV("error", error);
-    reply.pushKV("id", id);
-    return reply;
-}
-
-std::string JSONRPCReply(const UniValue &result, const UniValue &error,
-                         const UniValue &id) {
-    UniValue reply = JSONRPCReplyObj(result, error, id);
-    return reply.write() + "\n";
-}
-
-UniValue JSONRPCError(int code, const std::string &message) {
-    UniValue error(UniValue::VOBJ);
-    error.pushKV("code", code);
-    error.pushKV("message", message);
-    return error;
-}
-
-/** Username used when cookie authentication is in use (arbitrary, only for
- * recognizability in debugging/logging purposes)
- */
-static const std::string COOKIEAUTH_USER = "__cookie__";
-/** Default name for auth cookie file */
-static const std::string COOKIEAUTH_FILE = ".cookie";
-
-/** Get name of RPC authentication cookie file */
-static fs::path GetAuthCookieFile(bool temp = false) {
-    std::string arg = gArgs.GetArg("-rpccookiefile", COOKIEAUTH_FILE);
-    if (temp) {
-        arg += ".tmp";
-    }
-    return AbsPathForConfigVal(fs::path(arg));
-}
-
-bool GenerateAuthCookie(std::string *cookie_out) {
-    const size_t COOKIE_SIZE = 32;
-    uint8_t rand_pwd[COOKIE_SIZE];
-    GetRandBytes(rand_pwd, COOKIE_SIZE);
-    std::string cookie =
-        COOKIEAUTH_USER + ":" + HexStr(rand_pwd, rand_pwd + COOKIE_SIZE);
-
-    /** the umask determines what permissions are used to create this file -
-     * these are set to 077 in init.cpp unless overridden with -sysperms.
-     */
-    fsbridge::ofstream file;
-    fs::path filepath_tmp = GetAuthCookieFile(true);
-    file.open(filepath_tmp);
-    if (!file.is_open()) {
-        LogPrintf("Unable to open cookie authentication file %s for writing\n",
-                  filepath_tmp.string());
-        return false;
-    }
-    file << cookie;
-    file.close();
-
-    fs::path filepath = GetAuthCookieFile(false);
-    if (!RenameOver(filepath_tmp, filepath)) {
-        LogPrintf("Unable to rename cookie authentication file %s to %s\n",
-                  filepath_tmp.string(), filepath.string());
-        return false;
-    }
-    LogPrintf("Generated RPC authentication cookie %s\n", filepath.string());
-
-    if (cookie_out) {
-        *cookie_out = cookie;
-    }
-    return true;
-}
-
-bool GetAuthCookie(std::string *cookie_out) {
-    fsbridge::ifstream file;
-    std::string cookie;
-    fs::path filepath = GetAuthCookieFile();
-    file.open(filepath);
-    if (!file.is_open()) {
-        return false;
-    }
-    std::getline(file, cookie);
-    file.close();
-
-    if (cookie_out) {
-        *cookie_out = cookie;
-    }
-    return true;
-}
-
-void DeleteAuthCookie() {
-    try {
-        fs::remove(GetAuthCookieFile());
-    } catch (const fs::filesystem_error &e) {
-        LogPrintf("%s: Unable to remove random auth cookie file: %s\n",
-                  __func__, fsbridge::get_filesystem_error_message(e));
-    }
-}
-
-std::vector<UniValue> JSONRPCProcessBatchReply(const UniValue &in, size_t num) {
-    if (!in.isArray()) {
-        throw std::runtime_error("Batch must be an array");
-    }
-    std::vector<UniValue> batch(num);
-    for (size_t i = 0; i < in.size(); ++i) {
-        const UniValue &rec = in[i];
-        if (!rec.isObject()) {
-            throw std::runtime_error("Batch member must be object");
-        }
-        size_t id = rec["id"].get_int();
-        if (id >= num) {
-            throw std::runtime_error("Batch member id larger than size");
-        }
-        batch[id] = rec;
-    }
-    return batch;
-}
diff --git a/src/rpc/rawtransaction_util.cpp b/src/rpc/rawtransaction_util.cpp
--- a/src/rpc/rawtransaction_util.cpp
+++ b/src/rpc/rawtransaction_util.cpp
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 #include <keystore.h>
 #include <policy/policy.h>
 #include <primitives/transaction.h>
-#include <rpc/protocol.h>
+#include <rpc/request.h>
 #include <rpc/util.h>
 #include <tinyformat.h>
 #include <univalue.h>
diff --git a/src/rpc/request.h b/src/rpc/request.h
--- a/src/rpc/request.h
+++ b/src/rpc/request.h
@@ -9,6 +9,23 @@
 
 #include <univalue.h>
 
+UniValue JSONRPCRequestObj(const std::string &strMethod, const UniValue &params,
+                           const UniValue &id);
+UniValue JSONRPCReplyObj(const UniValue &result, const UniValue &error,
+                         const UniValue &id);
+std::string JSONRPCReply(const UniValue &result, const UniValue &error,
+                         const UniValue &id);
+UniValue JSONRPCError(int code, const std::string &message);
+
+/** Generate a new RPC authentication cookie and write it to disk */
+bool GenerateAuthCookie(std::string *cookie_out);
+/** Read the RPC authentication cookie from disk */
+bool GetAuthCookie(std::string *cookie_out);
+/** Delete RPC authentication cookie from disk */
+void DeleteAuthCookie();
+/** Parse JSON-RPC batch reply into a vector */
+std::vector<UniValue> JSONRPCProcessBatchReply(const UniValue &in, size_t num);
+
 class JSONRPCRequest {
 public:
     UniValue id;
diff --git a/src/rpc/request.cpp b/src/rpc/request.cpp
--- a/src/rpc/request.cpp
+++ b/src/rpc/request.cpp
@@ -1,20 +1,167 @@
 // Copyright (c) 2018-2019 The Bitcoin developers
+// Copyright (c) 2009-2019 The Bitcoin Core developers
 // Distributed under the MIT software license, see the accompanying
 // file COPYING or http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php.
 
+#include <rpc/request.h>
+
+#include <fs.h>
 #include <logging.h>
+#include <random.h>
 #include <rpc/protocol.h>
-#include <rpc/request.h>
-#include <tinyformat.h>
 #include <util/strencodings.h>
+#include <util/system.h>
 
 #include <univalue.h>
 
+/**
+ * JSON-RPC protocol.  Bitcoin speaks version 1.0 for maximum compatibility, but
+ * uses JSON-RPC 1.1/2.0 standards for parts of the 1.0 standard that were
+ * unspecified (HTTP errors and contents of 'error').
+ *
+ * 1.0 spec: http://json-rpc.org/wiki/specification
+ * 1.2 spec: http://jsonrpc.org/historical/json-rpc-over-http.html
+ */
+
+UniValue JSONRPCRequestObj(const std::string &strMethod, const UniValue &params,
+                           const UniValue &id) {
+    UniValue request(UniValue::VOBJ);
+    request.pushKV("method", strMethod);
+    request.pushKV("params", params);
+    request.pushKV("id", id);
+    return request;
+}
+
+UniValue JSONRPCReplyObj(const UniValue &result, const UniValue &error,
+                         const UniValue &id) {
+    UniValue reply(UniValue::VOBJ);
+    if (!error.isNull()) {
+        reply.pushKV("result", NullUniValue);
+    } else {
+        reply.pushKV("result", result);
+    }
+    reply.pushKV("error", error);
+    reply.pushKV("id", id);
+    return reply;
+}
+
+std::string JSONRPCReply(const UniValue &result, const UniValue &error,
+                         const UniValue &id) {
+    UniValue reply = JSONRPCReplyObj(result, error, id);
+    return reply.write() + "\n";
+}
+
+UniValue JSONRPCError(int code, const std::string &message) {
+    UniValue error(UniValue::VOBJ);
+    error.pushKV("code", code);
+    error.pushKV("message", message);
+    return error;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Username used when cookie authentication is in use (arbitrary, only for
+ * recognizability in debugging/logging purposes)
+ */
+static const std::string COOKIEAUTH_USER = "__cookie__";
+/** Default name for auth cookie file */
+static const std::string COOKIEAUTH_FILE = ".cookie";
+
+/** Get name of RPC authentication cookie file */
+static fs::path GetAuthCookieFile(bool temp = false) {
+    std::string arg = gArgs.GetArg("-rpccookiefile", COOKIEAUTH_FILE);
+    if (temp) {
+        arg += ".tmp";
+    }
+    return AbsPathForConfigVal(fs::path(arg));
+}
+
+bool GenerateAuthCookie(std::string *cookie_out) {
+    const size_t COOKIE_SIZE = 32;
+    uint8_t rand_pwd[COOKIE_SIZE];
+    GetRandBytes(rand_pwd, COOKIE_SIZE);
+    std::string cookie =
+        COOKIEAUTH_USER + ":" + HexStr(rand_pwd, rand_pwd + COOKIE_SIZE);
+
+    /**
+     * the umask determines what permissions are used to create this file -
+     * these are set to 077 in init.cpp unless overridden with -sysperms.
+     */
+    fsbridge::ofstream file;
+    fs::path filepath_tmp = GetAuthCookieFile(true);
+    file.open(filepath_tmp);
+    if (!file.is_open()) {
+        LogPrintf("Unable to open cookie authentication file %s for writing\n",
+                  filepath_tmp.string());
+        return false;
+    }
+    file << cookie;
+    file.close();
+
+    fs::path filepath = GetAuthCookieFile(false);
+    if (!RenameOver(filepath_tmp, filepath)) {
+        LogPrintf("Unable to rename cookie authentication file %s to %s\n",
+                  filepath_tmp.string(), filepath.string());
+        return false;
+    }
+    LogPrintf("Generated RPC authentication cookie %s\n", filepath.string());
+
+    if (cookie_out) {
+        *cookie_out = cookie;
+    }
+    return true;
+}
+
+bool GetAuthCookie(std::string *cookie_out) {
+    fsbridge::ifstream file;
+    std::string cookie;
+    fs::path filepath = GetAuthCookieFile();
+    file.open(filepath);
+    if (!file.is_open()) {
+        return false;
+    }
+    std::getline(file, cookie);
+    file.close();
+
+    if (cookie_out) {
+        *cookie_out = cookie;
+    }
+    return true;
+}
+
+void DeleteAuthCookie() {
+    try {
+        fs::remove(GetAuthCookieFile());
+    } catch (const fs::filesystem_error &e) {
+        LogPrintf("%s: Unable to remove random auth cookie file: %s\n",
+                  __func__, fsbridge::get_filesystem_error_message(e));
+    }
+}
+
+std::vector<UniValue> JSONRPCProcessBatchReply(const UniValue &in, size_t num) {
+    if (!in.isArray()) {
+        throw std::runtime_error("Batch must be an array");
+    }
+    std::vector<UniValue> batch(num);
+    for (size_t i = 0; i < in.size(); ++i) {
+        const UniValue &rec = in[i];
+        if (!rec.isObject()) {
+            throw std::runtime_error("Batch member must be object");
+        }
+        size_t id = rec["id"].get_int();
+        if (id >= num) {
+            throw std::runtime_error("Batch member id larger than size");
+        }
+        batch[id] = rec;
+    }
+    return batch;
+}
+
 void JSONRPCRequest::parse(const UniValue &valRequest) {
     // Parse request
     if (!valRequest.isObject()) {
         throw JSONRPCError(RPC_INVALID_REQUEST, "Invalid Request object");
     }
+
     const UniValue &request = valRequest.get_obj();
 
     // Parse id now so errors from here on will have the id
diff --git a/src/rpc/server.h b/src/rpc/server.h
--- a/src/rpc/server.h
+++ b/src/rpc/server.h
@@ -9,21 +9,21 @@
 
 #include <amount.h>
 #include <rpc/command.h>
-#include <rpc/protocol.h>
 #include <rpc/request.h>
 #include <rwcollection.h>
 #include <uint256.h>
 #include <util/system.h>
 
+#include <univalue.h>
+
+#include <boost/noncopyable.hpp>
+
 #include <cstdint>
 #include <functional>
 #include <list>
 #include <map>
 #include <string>
 
-#include <boost/noncopyable.hpp>
-#include <univalue.h>
-
 static const unsigned int DEFAULT_RPC_SERIALIZE_VERSION = 1;
 
 class CRPCCommand;
diff --git a/src/test/rpc_server_tests.cpp b/src/test/rpc_server_tests.cpp
--- a/src/test/rpc_server_tests.cpp
+++ b/src/test/rpc_server_tests.cpp
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 // Distributed under the MIT software license, see the accompanying
 // file COPYING or http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php.
 
+#include <rpc/protocol.h>
 #include <rpc/request.h>
 #include <rpc/server.h>