diff --git a/comm.go b/comm.go
index 3e88deff..86380a74 100644
--- a/comm.go
+++ b/comm.go
@@ -1,12 +1,14 @@
 package pubsub
 
 import (
-	"bufio"
 	"context"
+	"encoding/binary"
 	"io"
 	"time"
 
 	"github.com/gogo/protobuf/proto"
+	pool "github.com/libp2p/go-buffer-pool"
+	"github.com/multiformats/go-varint"
 
 	"github.com/libp2p/go-libp2p/core/network"
 	"github.com/libp2p/go-libp2p/core/peer"
@@ -156,16 +158,20 @@ func (p *PubSub) handlePeerEOF(ctx context.Context, s network.Stream) {
 }
 
 func (p *PubSub) handleSendingMessages(ctx context.Context, s network.Stream, outgoing <-chan *RPC) {
-	bufw := bufio.NewWriter(s)
-	wc := protoio.NewDelimitedWriter(bufw)
+	writeRpc := func(rpc *RPC) error {
+		size := uint64(rpc.Size())
 
-	writeMsg := func(msg proto.Message) error {
-		err := wc.WriteMsg(msg)
+		buf := pool.Get(varint.UvarintSize(size) + int(size))
+		defer pool.Put(buf)
+
+		n := binary.PutUvarint(buf, size)
+		_, err := rpc.MarshalTo(buf[n:])
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
 
-		return bufw.Flush()
+		_, err = s.Write(buf)
+		return err
 	}
 
 	defer s.Close()
@@ -176,7 +182,7 @@ func (p *PubSub) handleSendingMessages(ctx context.Context, s network.Stream, ou
 				return
 			}
 
-			err := writeMsg(&rpc.RPC)
+			err := writeRpc(rpc)
 			if err != nil {
 				s.Reset()
 				log.Debugf("writing message to %s: %s", s.Conn().RemotePeer(), err)