diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 5a513e2..beea25b 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -122,7 +122,13 @@ Available Commands:
 Flags:
   -a, --address string             full address of the monero node to reach out to (default "http://localhost:18081")
   -h, --help                       help for daemon
-      --request-timeout duration   how long to wait until considering the request a failure (default 1m0s)
+  -p, --password string            password to supply for rpc auth
+      --request-timeout duration   max wait time until considering the request a failure (default 1m0s)
+      --tls-ca-cert string         certificate authority to load
+      --tls-client-cert string     tls client certificate to use when connecting
+      --tls-client-key string      tls client key to use when connecting
+  -k, --tls-skip-verify            skip verification of certificate chain and host name
+  -u, --username string            name of the user to use during rpc auth
   -v, --verbose                    dump http requests and responses to stderr
 
 Use "monero daemon [command] --help" for more information about a command.
diff --git a/cmd/monero/options/options.go b/cmd/monero/options/options.go
index 0302459..81c4da2 100644
--- a/cmd/monero/options/options.go
+++ b/cmd/monero/options/options.go
@@ -83,6 +83,16 @@ func Bind(cmd *cobra.Command) {
 		"http://localhost:18081",
 		"full address of the monero node to reach out to")
 
+	cmd.PersistentFlags().StringVarP(&RootOptions.Username,
+		"username", "u",
+		"",
+		"name of the user to use during rpc auth")
+
+	cmd.PersistentFlags().StringVarP(&RootOptions.Password,
+		"password", "p",
+		"",
+		"password to supply for rpc auth")
+
 	cmd.PersistentFlags().BoolVarP(&RootOptions.TLSSkipVerify,
 		"tls-skip-verify", "k",
 		false,
diff --git a/pkg/http/client.go b/pkg/http/client.go
index 0ef3ec0..740aa94 100644
--- a/pkg/http/client.go
+++ b/pkg/http/client.go
@@ -44,6 +44,23 @@ type ClientConfig struct {
 	// client.
 	//
 	RequestTimeout time.Duration
+
+	// Username is the name of the user to send in the header of every HTTP
+	// call - must match the first portion of
+	// `--rpc-login=<username>:[password]` provided to `monerod`.
+	//
+	Username string
+
+	// Password is the user's password to send in the header of every HTTP
+	// call - must match the second portion of
+	// `--rpc-login=<username>:[password]` provided to `monerod` or the
+	// password interactively supplied during the daemon's startup.
+	//
+	// Note that because the `monerod` performs digest auth, the password
+	// won't be sent solely in plain base64 encoding, but the rest of the
+	// body of every request and response will still be cleartext.
+	//
+	Password string
 }
 
 func (c ClientConfig) Validate() error {
@@ -57,6 +74,14 @@ func (c ClientConfig) Validate() error {
 			"tls client key")
 	}
 
+	if c.Username != "" && c.Password == "" {
+		return fmt.Errorf("username specified but password not")
+	}
+
+	if c.Password != "" && c.Username == "" {
+		return fmt.Errorf("password specified but username not")
+	}
+
 	return nil
 }
 
@@ -100,8 +125,21 @@ func NewClient(cfg ClientConfig) (*http.Client, error) {
 	}
 
 	if cfg.Verbose {
-		client.Transport = NewDumpTransport(client.Transport)
+		WithTransport(NewDumpTransport(client.Transport))(client)
+	}
+
+	if cfg.Username != "" {
+		WithTransport(NewDigestAuthTransport(
+			cfg.Username, cfg.Password,
+			client.Transport,
+		))(client)
 	}
 
 	return client, nil
 }
+
+func WithTransport(rt http.RoundTripper) func(*http.Client) {
+	return func(c *http.Client) {
+		c.Transport = rt
+	}
+}
diff --git a/pkg/http/digest_auth.go b/pkg/http/digest_auth.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..debf5d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/http/digest_auth.go
@@ -0,0 +1,270 @@
+//
+// This is a derived work based on `code.google.com/p/mlab-ns2/gae/ns/digest`
+// (original work of Bipasa Chattopadhyay bipasa@cs.unc.edu Eric Gavaletz
+// gavaletz@gmail.com Seon-Wook Park seon.wook@swook.net, from the fork
+// maintained by Bob Ziuchkovski @bobziuchkovski
+// (https://github.com/rkl-/digest).
+//
+package http
+
+import (
+	"bytes"
+	"crypto/md5"
+	"crypto/rand"
+	"errors"
+	"fmt"
+	"io"
+	"io/ioutil"
+	"net/http"
+	"strings"
+)
+
+var (
+	ErrNilTransport      = errors.New("Transport is nil")
+	ErrBadChallenge      = errors.New("Challenge is bad")
+	ErrAlgNotImplemented = errors.New("algorithm not implemented")
+)
+
+// DigestAuthTransport is an implementation of http.RoundTripper that takes
+// care of http digest authentication.
+//
+type DigestAuthTransport struct {
+	Username  string
+	Password  string
+	transport http.RoundTripper
+}
+
+// NewDigestAuthTransport creates a new digest transport using the
+// http.DefaultTransport.
+//
+func NewDigestAuthTransport(
+	username, password string, rt http.RoundTripper,
+) *DigestAuthTransport {
+	return &DigestAuthTransport{
+		Username:  username,
+		Password:  password,
+		transport: rt,
+	}
+}
+
+func (t *DigestAuthTransport) newCredentials(
+	req *http.Request, c *challenge,
+) *credentials {
+	return &credentials{
+		Algorithm:  c.Algorithm,
+		DigestURI:  req.URL.RequestURI(),
+		MessageQop: c.Qop, // "auth" must be a single value
+		Nonce:      c.Nonce,
+		NonceCount: 0,
+		Opaque:     c.Opaque,
+		Realm:      c.Realm,
+		Username:   t.Username,
+
+		method:   req.Method,
+		password: t.Password,
+	}
+}
+
+// RoundTrip makes a request expecting a 401 response that will require digest
+// authentication. It creates the credentials it needs and makes a follow-up
+// request.
+//
+func (t *DigestAuthTransport) RoundTrip(
+	req *http.Request,
+) (*http.Response, error) {
+	// copy the request so we don't modify the input.
+	req2 := new(http.Request)
+	*req2 = *req
+	req2.Header = make(http.Header)
+	for k, s := range req.Header {
+		req2.Header[k] = s
+	}
+
+	// we need two readers for the body.
+	if req.Body != nil {
+		tmp, err := ioutil.ReadAll(req.Body)
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("read all body: %w", err)
+		}
+
+		reqBody01 := ioutil.NopCloser(bytes.NewBuffer(tmp))
+		reqBody02 := ioutil.NopCloser(bytes.NewBuffer(tmp))
+
+		req.Body = reqBody01
+		req2.Body = reqBody02
+	}
+
+	// make a request to get the 401 that contains the challenge.
+	resp, err := t.transport.RoundTrip(req)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("round trip err: %w", err)
+	}
+	if resp.StatusCode != 401 {
+		return resp, nil
+	}
+
+	chal := resp.Header.Get("WWW-Authenticate")
+	c, err := parseChallenge(chal)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("parse challange: %w", err)
+	}
+
+	// form credentials based on the challenge.
+	cr := t.newCredentials(req2, c)
+	auth, err := cr.authorize()
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("authorize: %w", err)
+	}
+
+	// we'll no longer use the initial response, so close it
+	resp.Body.Close()
+	// Make authenticated request.
+	req2.Header.Set("Authorization", auth)
+	return t.transport.RoundTrip(req2)
+}
+
+type challenge struct {
+	Realm     string
+	Domain    string
+	Nonce     string
+	Opaque    string
+	Stale     string
+	Algorithm string
+	Qop       string
+}
+
+func parseChallenge(input string) (*challenge, error) {
+	const challengePrefix = "Digest "
+	const whitespaceDelimiters = " \n\r\t"
+	const quotation = `"`
+
+	str := strings.Trim(input, whitespaceDelimiters)
+	if !strings.HasPrefix(str, challengePrefix) {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("bad challange: "+
+			"input doesn't start with '%s'", challengePrefix)
+	}
+
+	str = strings.Trim(str[len(challengePrefix):], whitespaceDelimiters)
+	fields := strings.Split(str, ",")
+	if len(fields) != 5 {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("split: expected 5 fields, got %d",
+			len(fields))
+	}
+
+	c := &challenge{}
+
+	for _, field := range fields {
+		kv := strings.SplitN(field, "=", 2)
+		if len(kv) != 2 {
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("split: expected to 2 parts "+
+				"in entry, got %d. field: '%s'",
+				len(kv), field)
+		}
+
+		key, value := kv[0], kv[1]
+		value = strings.Trim(value, quotation)
+		switch key {
+		case "qop":
+			c.Qop = value
+		case "algorithm":
+			c.Algorithm = value
+		case "realm":
+			c.Realm = value
+		case "nonce":
+			c.Nonce = value
+		case "stale":
+			c.Stale = value
+		default:
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("unknown field '%s'", key)
+		}
+	}
+
+	return c, nil
+}
+
+type credentials struct {
+	Algorithm  string
+	Cnonce     string
+	DigestURI  string
+	MessageQop string
+	Nonce      string
+	NonceCount int
+	Opaque     string
+	Realm      string
+	Username   string
+
+	method   string
+	password string
+}
+
+func (c *credentials) ha1() string {
+	return h(fmt.Sprintf("%s:%s:%s", c.Username, c.Realm, c.password))
+}
+
+func (c *credentials) ha2() string {
+	return h(fmt.Sprintf("%s:%s", c.method, c.DigestURI))
+}
+
+func (c *credentials) resp(cnonce string) (string, error) {
+	c.NonceCount++
+
+	if c.MessageQop == "auth" {
+		if cnonce != "" {
+			c.Cnonce = cnonce
+		} else {
+			b := make([]byte, 8)
+			io.ReadFull(rand.Reader, b)
+			c.Cnonce = fmt.Sprintf("%x", b)[:16]
+		}
+		return kd(c.ha1(), fmt.Sprintf("%s:%08x:%s:%s:%s",
+			c.Nonce, c.NonceCount, c.Cnonce, c.MessageQop, c.ha2())), nil
+	} else if c.MessageQop == "" {
+		return kd(c.ha1(), fmt.Sprintf("%s:%s", c.Nonce, c.ha2())), nil
+	}
+
+	return "", ErrAlgNotImplemented
+}
+
+func (c *credentials) authorize() (string, error) {
+	// Note that this is only implemented for MD5 and NOT MD5-sess.
+	// MD5-sess is rarely supported and those that do are a big mess.
+	if c.Algorithm != "MD5" {
+		return "", ErrAlgNotImplemented
+	}
+	// Note that this is NOT implemented for "qop=auth-int".  Similarly the
+	// auth-int server side implementations that do exist are a mess.
+	if c.MessageQop != "auth" && c.MessageQop != "" {
+		return "", ErrAlgNotImplemented
+	}
+	resp, err := c.resp("")
+	if err != nil {
+		return "", ErrAlgNotImplemented
+	}
+	sl := []string{fmt.Sprintf(`username="%s"`, c.Username)}
+	sl = append(sl, fmt.Sprintf(`realm="%s"`, c.Realm))
+	sl = append(sl, fmt.Sprintf(`nonce="%s"`, c.Nonce))
+	sl = append(sl, fmt.Sprintf(`uri="%s"`, c.DigestURI))
+	sl = append(sl, fmt.Sprintf(`response="%s"`, resp))
+	if c.Algorithm != "" {
+		sl = append(sl, fmt.Sprintf(`algorithm="%s"`, c.Algorithm))
+	}
+	if c.Opaque != "" {
+		sl = append(sl, fmt.Sprintf(`opaque="%s"`, c.Opaque))
+	}
+	if c.MessageQop != "" {
+		sl = append(sl, fmt.Sprintf("qop=%s", c.MessageQop))
+		sl = append(sl, fmt.Sprintf("nc=%08x", c.NonceCount))
+		sl = append(sl, fmt.Sprintf(`cnonce="%s"`, c.Cnonce))
+	}
+	return fmt.Sprintf("Digest %s", strings.Join(sl, ", ")), nil
+}
+
+func h(data string) string {
+	hf := md5.New()
+	io.WriteString(hf, data)
+	return fmt.Sprintf("%x", hf.Sum(nil))
+}
+
+func kd(secret, data string) string {
+	return h(fmt.Sprintf("%s:%s", secret, data))
+}
diff --git a/pkg/http/digest_auth_test.go b/pkg/http/digest_auth_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4172e0a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/http/digest_auth_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+package http_test
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
+
+	mhttp "github.com/cirocosta/go-monero/pkg/http"
+)
+
+func TestParseChallenge(t *testing.T) {
+	input := `Digest qop="auth",algorithm=MD5,realm="monero-rpc",nonce="IdDHjxbfpLYP/KzjaxaOqA==",stale=false`
+
+	challenge, err := mhttp.ParseChallenge(input)
+	assert.NoError(t, err)
+
+	assert.Equal(t, "auth", challenge.Qop)
+	assert.Equal(t, "MD5", challenge.Algorithm)
+	assert.Equal(t, "monero-rpc", challenge.Realm)
+	assert.Equal(t, `IdDHjxbfpLYP/KzjaxaOqA==`, challenge.Nonce)
+	assert.Equal(t, "false", challenge.Stale)
+}
diff --git a/pkg/http/export_test.go b/pkg/http/export_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..af54e1c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/http/export_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+package http
+
+var ParseChallenge = parseChallenge