diff --git a/src/ecdsa/_compat.py b/src/ecdsa/_compat.py
index 4558e33a..ab1dd986 100644
--- a/src/ecdsa/_compat.py
+++ b/src/ecdsa/_compat.py
@@ -23,9 +23,6 @@ def normalise_bytes(buffer_object):
         # flake8 runs on py3 where `buffer` indeed doesn't exist...
         return buffer(buffer_object)  # noqa: F821
 
-    def hmac_compat(ret):
-        return ret
-
     if (
         sys.version_info < (2, 7)
         or sys.version_info < (2, 7, 4)
@@ -92,9 +89,6 @@ def int_to_bytes(val, length=None, byteorder="big"):
 
 else:
 
-    def hmac_compat(data):
-        return data
-
     def normalise_bytes(buffer_object):
         """Cast the input into array of bytes."""
         return memoryview(buffer_object).cast("B")
diff --git a/src/ecdsa/rfc6979.py b/src/ecdsa/rfc6979.py
index 0728b5a4..0ff49ef1 100644
--- a/src/ecdsa/rfc6979.py
+++ b/src/ecdsa/rfc6979.py
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@
 import hmac
 from binascii import hexlify
 from .util import number_to_string, number_to_string_crop, bit_length
-from ._compat import hmac_compat
 
 
 # bit_length was defined in this module previously so keep it for backwards
@@ -59,9 +58,9 @@ def generate_k(order, secexp, hash_func, data, retry_gen=0, extra_entropy=b""):
     holen = hash_func().digest_size
     rolen = (qlen + 7) // 8
     bx = (
-        hmac_compat(number_to_string(secexp, order)),
-        hmac_compat(bits2octets(data, order)),
-        hmac_compat(extra_entropy),
+        number_to_string(secexp, order),
+        bits2octets(data, order),
+        extra_entropy,
     )
 
     # Step B