diff --git a/basic_ds.go b/basic_ds.go
index 5c5a0ad..ccfe14d 100644
--- a/basic_ds.go
+++ b/basic_ds.go
@@ -13,7 +13,9 @@ type MapDatastore struct {
 	values map[Key][]byte
 }
 
-// NewMapDatastore constructs a MapDatastore
+// NewMapDatastore constructs a MapDatastore. It is _not_ thread-safe by
+// default, wrap using sync.MutexWrap if you need thread safety (the answer here
+// is usually yes).
 func NewMapDatastore() (d *MapDatastore) {
 	return &MapDatastore{
 		values: make(map[Key][]byte),
diff --git a/datastore.go b/datastore.go
index b9ced85..eec1932 100644
--- a/datastore.go
+++ b/datastore.go
@@ -102,14 +102,6 @@ type Batching interface {
 // actually support batching.
 var ErrBatchUnsupported = errors.New("this datastore does not support batching")
 
-// ThreadSafeDatastore is an interface that all threadsafe datastore should
-// implement to leverage type safety checks.
-type ThreadSafeDatastore interface {
-	Datastore
-
-	IsThreadSafe()
-}
-
 // CheckedDatastore is an interface that should be implemented by datastores
 // which may need checking on-disk data integrity.
 type CheckedDatastore interface {
diff --git a/mount/mount.go b/mount/mount.go
index 9e2622f..9d26f46 100644
--- a/mount/mount.go
+++ b/mount/mount.go
@@ -190,8 +190,6 @@ func (d *Datastore) Query(q query.Query) (query.Results, error) {
 	}), nil
 }
 
-func (d *Datastore) IsThreadSafe() {}
-
 func (d *Datastore) Close() error {
 	for _, d := range d.mounts {
 		err := d.Datastore.Close()
diff --git a/sync/sync.go b/sync/sync.go
index d222016..c9ec73a 100644
--- a/sync/sync.go
+++ b/sync/sync.go
@@ -15,8 +15,8 @@ type MutexDatastore struct {
 	child ds.Datastore
 }
 
-// MutexWrap constructs a datastore with a coarse lock around
-// the entire datastore, for every single operation
+// MutexWrap constructs a datastore with a coarse lock around the entire
+// datastore, for every single operation.
 func MutexWrap(d ds.Datastore) *MutexDatastore {
 	return &MutexDatastore{child: d}
 }
@@ -26,9 +26,6 @@ func (d *MutexDatastore) Children() []ds.Datastore {
 	return []ds.Datastore{d.child}
 }
 
-// IsThreadSafe implements ThreadSafeDatastore
-func (d *MutexDatastore) IsThreadSafe() {}
-
 // Put implements Datastore.Put
 func (d *MutexDatastore) Put(key ds.Key, value []byte) (err error) {
 	d.Lock()