diff --git a/bin/build-libbitcoind b/bin/build-libbitcoind
index 6ba69f21..46575ec5 100755
--- a/bin/build-libbitcoind
+++ b/bin/build-libbitcoind
@@ -5,6 +5,16 @@ options=`cat ${root_dir}/bin/config_options.sh`
 
 os_dir=$(./platform/os.sh osdir)
 
+build_dependencies () {
+  if [ -d "${btc_dir}" ]; then
+    pushd "${btc_dir}"/depends
+    host=`uname -m`-`uname -a | awk '{print tolower($1)}'`
+    echo "using host for dependencies: ${host}"
+    make HOST=${host} NO_QT=1 NO_WALLET=1 NO_UPNP=1 #host is arch-os, e.g. x86_64-linux 
+    popd
+  fi 
+}
+
 get_patch_file () {
   if test -e "${root_dir/PATCH_VERSION}"; then
     tag=`cat "${root_dir}/PATCH_VERSION" | xargs`
@@ -87,7 +97,7 @@ if [ "${only_make}" = false ]; then
   fi
 
 fi
-
+build_dependencies
 echo './autogen.sh'
 ./autogen.sh
 full_options="${options}${os_dir}"