diff --git a/pkgs/applications/misc/electrum-dash/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/misc/electrum-dash/default.nix
index 8752bafbe731..e7a5a1be1979 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/misc/electrum-dash/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/misc/electrum-dash/default.nix
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ python2Packages.buildPythonApplication rec {
     dns
     ecdsa
     pbkdf2
-    protobuf3_2
+    protobuf
     pyasn1
     pyasn1-modules
     pycrypto
diff --git a/pkgs/applications/misc/electrum-ltc/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/misc/electrum-ltc/default.nix
index 25c963223789..bb41f8665e57 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/misc/electrum-ltc/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/misc/electrum-ltc/default.nix
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ python2Packages.buildPythonApplication rec {
     requests
     qrcode
     ltc_scrypt
-    protobuf3_2
+    protobuf
     dns
     jsonrpclib
   ];
diff --git a/pkgs/applications/misc/electrum/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/misc/electrum/default.nix
index b0f821a3aacb..0781617eb695 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/misc/electrum/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/misc/electrum/default.nix
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ python2Packages.buildPythonApplication rec {
     ecdsa
     jsonrpclib
     pbkdf2
-    protobuf3_2
+    protobuf
     pyaes
     pycrypto
     pyqt4
diff --git a/pkgs/applications/misc/ola/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/misc/ola/default.nix
index 0aba5106387d..42a07eaa6b61 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/misc/ola/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/misc/ola/default.nix
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   nativeBuildInputs = [ autoreconfHook bison flex pkgconfig perl ];
   buildInputs = [ libuuid cppunit protobuf zlib avahi libmicrohttpd python3 ];
-  propagatedBuildInputs = with python3Packages; [ protobuf3_2 numpy ];
+  propagatedBuildInputs = with python3Packages; [ protobuf numpy ];
 
   configureFlags = [ "--enable-python-libs" ];
 
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/lightstep-tracer-cpp/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/lightstep-tracer-cpp/default.nix
index e13796229ce1..9aea42082c51 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/lightstep-tracer-cpp/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/lightstep-tracer-cpp/default.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{ stdenv, lib, fetchFromGitHub, pkgconfig, protobuf3_2, automake
+{ stdenv, lib, fetchFromGitHub, pkgconfig, protobuf, automake
 , autoreconfHook, zlib
 , enableGrpc ? false
 }:
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   ];
 
   buildInputs = [
-    protobuf3_2 zlib
+    protobuf zlib
   ];
 
   meta = with lib; {
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/opencv/3.x.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/opencv/3.x.nix
index 69f0ce929d18..f6811b137173 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/opencv/3.x.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/opencv/3.x.nix
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 , enableJPEG2K    ? true, jasper
 
 , enableIpp       ? false
-, enableContrib   ? false, protobuf3_1
+, enableContrib   ? false, protobuf
 , enablePython    ? false, pythonPackages
 , enableGtk2      ? false, gtk2
 , enableGtk3      ? false, gtk3
@@ -146,7 +146,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     # tesseract & leptonica.
     ++ lib.optionals enableTesseract [ tesseract leptonica ]
     ++ lib.optionals enableCuda [ cudatoolkit gcc5 ]
-    ++ lib.optional buildContrib protobuf3_1
+    ++ lib.optional buildContrib protobuf
     ++ lib.optionals stdenv.isDarwin [ AVFoundation Cocoa QTKit ];
 
   propagatedBuildInputs = lib.optional enablePython pythonPackages.numpy;
diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/keepkey/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/keepkey/default.nix
index e54ed52d9c52..3e58e9e3e03d 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/keepkey/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/keepkey/default.nix
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 { stdenv, fetchPypi, buildPythonPackage, ecdsa
-, mnemonic, protobuf3_2, hidapi }:
+, mnemonic, protobuf, hidapi }:
 
 buildPythonPackage rec {
   name = "${pname}-${version}";
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
     sha256 = "14d2r8dlx997ypgma2k8by90acw7i3l7hfq4gar9lcka0lqfj714";
   };
 
-  propagatedBuildInputs = [ protobuf3_2 hidapi ];
+  propagatedBuildInputs = [ protobuf hidapi ];
 
   buildInputs = [ ecdsa mnemonic ];
 
diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/trezor/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/trezor/default.nix
index 72d73022cabb..c473403f53d5 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/trezor/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/trezor/default.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{ lib, fetchPypi, buildPythonPackage, protobuf3_2, hidapi, ecdsa, mnemonic
+{ lib, fetchPypi, buildPythonPackage, protobuf, hidapi, ecdsa, mnemonic
 , requests
 }:
 
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
     sha256 = "6bdb69fc125ba705854e21163be6c7da3aa17c2a3a84f40b6d8a3f6e4a8cb314";
   };
 
-  propagatedBuildInputs = [ protobuf3_2 hidapi requests ];
+  propagatedBuildInputs = [ protobuf hidapi requests ];
 
   buildInputs = [ ecdsa mnemonic ];
 
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/networking/envoy/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/networking/envoy/default.nix
index 79a24ea1f8dd..a4300c724e07 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/networking/envoy/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/networking/envoy/default.nix
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 { stdenv, lib, fetchFromGitHub, pkgconfig, bazel, c-ares, backward-cpp
 , libevent, gtest, gperftools, http-parser, lightstep-tracer-cpp
-, nghttp2, protobuf3_2, tclap, rapidjson, spdlog, boringssl, buildEnv
+, nghttp2, protobuf, tclap, rapidjson, spdlog, boringssl, buildEnv
 }:
 
 let
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ let
     };
 
     protobuf = {
-      pkg = protobuf3_2;
+      pkg = protobuf;
       srcs = ''glob(["lib/libproto*.so"])'';
       hdrs = ''glob(["include/google/protobuf/**/*.h"])'';
       includes = ''["include"]'';
@@ -201,7 +201,7 @@ let
     http-parser
     lightstep-tracer-cpp
     nghttp2
-    protobuf3_2
+    protobuf
     tclap
     rapidjson
     spdlog
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 3b02ee102ea2..776405195803 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -1451,7 +1451,7 @@ with pkgs;
       clangStdenv = libcxxStdenv; # workaround for https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/28223
       python = python2;
       inherit (python2Packages) gyp;
-      protobuf = protobuf3_2.overrideDerivation (oldAttrs: { stdenv = clangStdenv; });
+      protobuf = pkgs.protobuf.overrideDerivation (oldAttrs: { stdenv = clangStdenv; });
     };
 
     table = callPackage ../tools/inputmethods/ibus-engines/ibus-table {
@@ -1938,7 +1938,7 @@ with pkgs;
       clangStdenv = libcxxStdenv; # workaround for https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/28223
       python = python2;
       inherit (python2Packages) gyp;
-      protobuf = protobuf3_2.overrideDerivation (oldAttrs: { stdenv = clangStdenv; });
+      protobuf = pkgs.protobuf.overrideDerivation (oldAttrs: { stdenv = clangStdenv; });
     };
 
     table-other = callPackage ../tools/inputmethods/fcitx-engines/fcitx-table-other { };
@@ -9987,7 +9987,7 @@ with pkgs;
 
   postgis = callPackage ../development/libraries/postgis { };
 
-  protobuf = protobuf2_6;
+  protobuf = protobuf3_4;
   protobuf3_0 = lowPrio (callPackage ../development/libraries/protobuf/3.0.nix { });
   protobuf3_1 = callPackage ../development/libraries/protobuf/3.1.nix { };
   protobuf3_2 = callPackage ../development/libraries/protobuf/3.2.nix { };
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
index af97e66a7121..ffe939af8e17 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
@@ -228,9 +228,7 @@ in {
 
   pycryptodomex = callPackage ../development/python-modules/pycryptodomex { };
 
-  PyChromecast = callPackage ../development/python-modules/pychromecast {
-    protobuf = self.protobuf3_2;
-  };
+  PyChromecast = callPackage ../development/python-modules/pychromecast { };
 
   pyexiv2 = if (!isPy3k) then callPackage ../development/python-modules/pyexiv2 {} else throw "pyexiv2 not supported for interpreter ${python.executable}";
 
@@ -5917,7 +5915,7 @@ in {
       validictory
       decorator
       mutagen
-      protobuf3_0
+      protobuf
       setuptools
       requests
       dateutil
@@ -7537,7 +7535,7 @@ in {
       sha256 = "09bf5gfip9x2wr0ij43p39ac6z2iqzn7kgpi2jjbwpnhs0vwkycs";
     };
 
-    propagatedBuildInputs = with self; [ python-axolotl-curve25519 protobuf3_0 pycrypto ];
+    propagatedBuildInputs = with self; [ python-axolotl-curve25519 protobuf pycrypto ];
     # IV == 0 in tests is not supported by pycrytpodom (our pycrypto drop-in)
     doCheck = !isPy3k;
 
@@ -16343,8 +16341,7 @@ in {
 
   });
 
-  protobuf = self.protobuf2_6;
-  # only required by tensorflow
+  protobuf = self.protobuf3_4;
   protobuf3_4 = callPackage ../development/python-modules/protobuf.nix {
     disabled = isPyPy;
     doCheck = !isPy3k;
@@ -23898,9 +23895,7 @@ EOF
     inherit (pkgs) libasyncns pkgconfig;
   };
 
-  libarcus = callPackage ../development/python-modules/libarcus {
-    protobuf = self.protobuf3_0;
-  };
+  libarcus = callPackage ../development/python-modules/libarcus { };
 
   pybrowserid = buildPythonPackage rec {
     name = "PyBrowserID-${version}";
@@ -24182,7 +24177,7 @@ EOF
     '';
 
     buildInputs = with self; [ nose ];
-    propagatedBuildInputs = with self; [ noise numpy pyplatec protobuf3_2 purepng argparse h5py gdal ];
+    propagatedBuildInputs = with self; [ noise numpy pyplatec protobuf purepng argparse h5py gdal ];
 
     prePatch = ''
       substituteInPlace setup.py \