diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 3e9a3994..f6123d44 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 Version 0.1
 -----------
+ - 0.1.6 (not released)
+  - Static files
  - 0.1.5 
   - Cookies
   - Blueprint listeners and ordering
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index cc62e6bf..a02dc703 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@ app.run(host="0.0.0.0", port=8000)
  * [Exceptions](docs/exceptions.md)
  * [Blueprints](docs/blueprints.md)
  * [Cookies](docs/cookies.md)
+ * [Static Files](docs/static_files.md)
  * [Deploying](docs/deploying.md)
  * [Contributing](docs/contributing.md)
  * [License](LICENSE)
diff --git a/docs/blueprints.md b/docs/blueprints.md
index 1a516356..adc40dfa 100644
--- a/docs/blueprints.md
+++ b/docs/blueprints.md
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ from sanic import Sanic
 from my_blueprint import bp
 
 app = Sanic(__name__)
-app.register_blueprint(bp)
+app.blueprint(bp)
 
 app.run(host='0.0.0.0', port=8000, debug=True)
 ```
@@ -79,6 +79,12 @@ Exceptions can also be applied exclusively to blueprints globally.
 @bp.exception(NotFound)
 def ignore_404s(request, exception):
 	return text("Yep, I totally found the page: {}".format(request.url))
+
+## Static files
+Static files can also be served globally, under the blueprint prefix.
+
+```python
+bp.static('/folder/to/serve', '/web/path')
 ```
 
 ## Start and Stop
diff --git a/docs/static_files.md b/docs/static_files.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..284d747d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/static_files.md
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+# Static Files
+
+Both directories and files can be served by registering with static
+
+## Example
+
+```python
+app = Sanic(__name__)
+
+# Serves files from the static folder to the URL /static
+app.static('./static', '/static')
+
+# Serves the file /home/ubuntu/test.png when the URL /the_best.png
+# is requested
+app.static('/home/ubuntu/test.png', '/the_best.png')
+
+app.run(host="0.0.0.0", port=8000)
+```
diff --git a/sanic/blueprints.py b/sanic/blueprints.py
index 37cfa1c3..d619b574 100644
--- a/sanic/blueprints.py
+++ b/sanic/blueprints.py
@@ -33,6 +33,15 @@ class BlueprintSetup:
         """
         self.app.exception(*args, **kwargs)(handler)
 
+    def add_static(self, file_or_directory, uri, *args, **kwargs):
+        """
+        Registers static files to sanic
+        """
+        if self.url_prefix:
+            uri = self.url_prefix + uri
+
+        self.app.static(file_or_directory, uri, *args, **kwargs)
+
     def add_middleware(self, middleware, *args, **kwargs):
         """
         Registers middleware to sanic
@@ -112,3 +121,9 @@ class Blueprint:
             self.record(lambda s: s.add_exception(handler, *args, **kwargs))
             return handler
         return decorator
+
+    def static(self, file_or_directory, uri, *args, **kwargs):
+        """
+        """
+        self.record(
+            lambda s: s.add_static(file_or_directory, uri, *args, **kwargs))
diff --git a/sanic/exceptions.py b/sanic/exceptions.py
index 3ed5ab25..e21aca63 100644
--- a/sanic/exceptions.py
+++ b/sanic/exceptions.py
@@ -21,6 +21,15 @@ class ServerError(SanicException):
     status_code = 500
 
 
+class FileNotFound(NotFound):
+    status_code = 404
+
+    def __init__(self, message, path, relative_url):
+        super().__init__(message)
+        self.path = path
+        self.relative_url = relative_url
+
+
 class Handler:
     handlers = None
 
diff --git a/sanic/response.py b/sanic/response.py
index 20e69eff..d0e64cea 100644
--- a/sanic/response.py
+++ b/sanic/response.py
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
+from aiofiles import open as open_async
 from datetime import datetime
 from http.cookies import SimpleCookie
-import ujson
+from mimetypes import guess_type
+from os import path
+from ujson import dumps as json_dumps
 
 COMMON_STATUS_CODES = {
     200: b'OK',
@@ -136,7 +139,7 @@ class HTTPResponse:
 
 
 def json(body, status=200, headers=None):
-    return HTTPResponse(ujson.dumps(body), headers=headers, status=status,
+    return HTTPResponse(json_dumps(body), headers=headers, status=status,
                         content_type="application/json")
 
 
@@ -148,3 +151,17 @@ def text(body, status=200, headers=None):
 def html(body, status=200, headers=None):
     return HTTPResponse(body, status=status, headers=headers,
                         content_type="text/html; charset=utf-8")
+
+
+async def file(location, mime_type=None, headers=None):
+    filename = path.split(location)[-1]
+
+    async with open_async(location, mode='rb') as _file:
+        out_stream = await _file.read()
+
+    mime_type = mime_type or guess_type(filename)[0] or 'text/plain'
+
+    return HTTPResponse(status=200,
+                        headers=headers,
+                        content_type=mime_type,
+                        body_bytes=out_stream)
diff --git a/sanic/router.py b/sanic/router.py
index 951b49bc..8392dcd8 100644
--- a/sanic/router.py
+++ b/sanic/router.py
@@ -82,6 +82,9 @@ class Router:
             # Mark the whole route as unhashable if it has the hash key in it
             if re.search('(^|[^^]){1}/', pattern):
                 properties['unhashable'] = True
+            # Mark the route as unhashable if it matches the hash key
+            elif re.search(pattern, '/'):
+                properties['unhashable'] = True
 
             return '({})'.format(pattern)
 
diff --git a/sanic/sanic.py b/sanic/sanic.py
index f8189d77..a26b48f1 100644
--- a/sanic/sanic.py
+++ b/sanic/sanic.py
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ from .log import log, logging
 from .response import HTTPResponse
 from .router import Router
 from .server import serve
+from .static import register as static_register
 from .exceptions import ServerError
 
 
@@ -28,6 +29,9 @@ class Sanic:
         self.loop = None
         self.debug = None
 
+        # Register alternative method names
+        self.go_fast = self.run
+
     # -------------------------------------------------------------------- #
     # Registration
     # -------------------------------------------------------------------- #
@@ -41,6 +45,11 @@ class Sanic:
         :return: decorated function
         """
 
+        # Fix case where the user did not prefix the URL with a /
+        # and will probably get confused as to why it's not working
+        if not uri.startswith('/'):
+            uri = '/' + uri
+
         def response(handler):
             self.router.add(uri=uri, methods=methods, handler=handler)
             return handler
@@ -84,7 +93,17 @@ class Sanic:
             attach_to = args[0]
             return register_middleware
 
-    def register_blueprint(self, blueprint, **options):
+    # Static Files
+    def static(self, file_or_directory, uri, pattern='.+',
+               use_modified_since=True):
+        """
+        Registers a root to serve files from.  The input can either be a file
+        or a directory.  See
+        """
+        static_register(self, file_or_directory, uri, pattern,
+                        use_modified_since)
+
+    def blueprint(self, blueprint, **options):
         """
         Registers a blueprint on the application.
         :param blueprint: Blueprint object
@@ -101,6 +120,12 @@ class Sanic:
             self._blueprint_order.append(blueprint)
         blueprint.register(self, options)
 
+    def register_blueprint(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        # TODO: deprecate 1.0
+        log.warning("Use of register_blueprint will be deprecated in "
+                    "version 1.0.  Please use the blueprint method instead")
+        return self.blueprint(*args, **kwargs)
+
     # -------------------------------------------------------------------- #
     # Request Handling
     # -------------------------------------------------------------------- #
diff --git a/sanic/static.py b/sanic/static.py
index f351bc79..7c3a529f 100644
--- a/sanic/static.py
+++ b/sanic/static.py
@@ -1,48 +1,59 @@
-import re
-import os
-from zlib import adler32
-import mimetypes
+from aiofiles.os import stat
+from os import path
+from re import sub
+from time import strftime, gmtime
 
-from sanic.response import HTTPResponse
+from .exceptions import FileNotFound, InvalidUsage
+from .response import file, HTTPResponse
 
 
-def setup(app, dirname, url_prefix):
-    @app.middleware
-    async def static_middleware(request):
-        url = request.url
-        if url.startswith(url_prefix):
-            filename = url[len(url_prefix):]
-            if filename:
-                filename = secure_filename(filename)
-                filename = os.path.join(dirname, filename)
-                if os.path.isfile(filename):
-                    return sendfile(filename)
+def register(app, file_or_directory, uri, pattern, use_modified_since):
+    # TODO: Though sanic is not a file server, I feel like we should atleast
+    #       make a good effort here.  Modified-since is nice, but we could
+    #       also look into etags, expires, and caching
+    """
+    Registers a static directory handler with Sanic by adding a route to the
+    router and registering a handler.
+    :param app: Sanic
+    :param file_or_directory: File or directory path to serve from
+    :param uri: URL to serve from
+    :param pattern: regular expression used to match files in the URL
+    :param use_modified_since: If true, send file modified time, and return
+                     not modified if the browser's matches the server's
+    """
 
+    # If we're not trying to match a file directly,
+    # serve from the folder
+    if not path.isfile(file_or_directory):
+        uri += '<file_uri:' + pattern + '>'
 
-_split = re.compile(r'[\0%s]' % re.escape(''.join(
-    [os.path.sep, os.path.altsep or ''])))
+    async def _handler(request, file_uri=None):
+        # Using this to determine if the URL is trying to break out of the path
+        # served.  os.path.realpath seems to be very slow
+        if file_uri and '../' in file_uri:
+            raise InvalidUsage("Invalid URL")
 
+        # Merge served directory and requested file if provided
+        # Strip all / that in the beginning of the URL to help prevent python
+        # from herping a derp and treating the uri as an absolute path
+        file_path = path.join(file_or_directory, sub('^[/]*', '', file_uri)) \
+            if file_uri else file_or_directory
+        try:
+            headers = {}
+            # Check if the client has been sent this file before
+            # and it has not been modified since
+            if use_modified_since:
+                stats = await stat(file_path)
+                modified_since = strftime('%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S GMT',
+                                          gmtime(stats.st_mtime))
+                if request.headers.get('If-Modified-Since') == modified_since:
+                    return HTTPResponse(status=304)
+                headers['Last-Modified'] = modified_since
 
-def secure_filename(path):
-    return _split.sub('', path)
+            return await file(file_path, headers=headers)
+        except:
+            raise FileNotFound('File not found',
+                               path=file_or_directory,
+                               relative_url=file_uri)
 
-
-def sendfile(location, mimetype=None, add_etags=True):
-    headers = {}
-    filename = os.path.split(location)[-1]
-
-    with open(location, 'rb') as ins_file:
-        out_stream = ins_file.read()
-
-    if add_etags:
-        headers['ETag'] = '{}-{}-{}'.format(
-            int(os.path.getmtime(location)),
-            hex(os.path.getsize(location)),
-            adler32(location.encode('utf-8')) & 0xffffffff)
-
-    mimetype = mimetype or mimetypes.guess_type(filename)[0] or 'text/plain'
-
-    return HTTPResponse(status=200,
-                        headers=headers,
-                        content_type=mimetype,
-                        body_bytes=out_stream)
+    app.route(uri, methods=['GET'])(_handler)
diff --git a/sanic/utils.py b/sanic/utils.py
index 88aa8eae..04a7803a 100644
--- a/sanic/utils.py
+++ b/sanic/utils.py
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ async def local_request(method, uri, cookies=None, *args, **kwargs):
     async with aiohttp.ClientSession(cookies=cookies) as session:
         async with getattr(session, method)(url, *args, **kwargs) as response:
             response.text = await response.text()
+            response.body = await response.read()
             return response
 
 
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 77210534..2e4e67e7 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ setup(
         'uvloop>=0.5.3',
         'httptools>=0.0.9',
         'ujson>=1.35',
+        'aiofiles>=0.3.0',
     ],
     classifiers=[
         'Development Status :: 2 - Pre-Alpha',
diff --git a/tests/test_blueprints.py b/tests/test_blueprints.py
index 1b88795d..39303ff4 100644
--- a/tests/test_blueprints.py
+++ b/tests/test_blueprints.py
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+import inspect
+
 from sanic import Sanic
 from sanic.blueprints import Blueprint
 from sanic.response import json, text
@@ -17,7 +19,7 @@ def test_bp():
     def handler(request):
         return text('Hello')
 
-    app.register_blueprint(bp)
+    app.blueprint(bp)
     request, response = sanic_endpoint_test(app)
 
     assert response.text == 'Hello'
@@ -30,7 +32,7 @@ def test_bp_with_url_prefix():
     def handler(request):
         return text('Hello')
 
-    app.register_blueprint(bp)
+    app.blueprint(bp)
     request, response = sanic_endpoint_test(app, uri='/test1/')
 
     assert response.text == 'Hello'
@@ -49,8 +51,8 @@ def test_several_bp_with_url_prefix():
     def handler2(request):
         return text('Hello2')
 
-    app.register_blueprint(bp)
-    app.register_blueprint(bp2)
+    app.blueprint(bp)
+    app.blueprint(bp2)
     request, response = sanic_endpoint_test(app, uri='/test1/')
     assert response.text == 'Hello'
 
@@ -70,7 +72,7 @@ def test_bp_middleware():
     async def handler(request):
         return text('FAIL')
 
-    app.register_blueprint(blueprint)
+    app.blueprint(blueprint)
 
     request, response = sanic_endpoint_test(app)
 
@@ -97,7 +99,7 @@ def test_bp_exception_handler():
     def handler_exception(request, exception):
         return text("OK")
 
-    app.register_blueprint(blueprint)
+    app.blueprint(blueprint)
 
     request, response = sanic_endpoint_test(app, uri='/1')
     assert response.status == 400
@@ -140,8 +142,24 @@ def test_bp_listeners():
     def handler_6(sanic, loop):
         order.append(6)
 
-    app.register_blueprint(blueprint)
+    app.blueprint(blueprint)
 
     request, response = sanic_endpoint_test(app, uri='/')
 
-    assert order == [1,2,3,4,5,6]
\ No newline at end of file
+    assert order == [1,2,3,4,5,6]
+
+def test_bp_static():
+    current_file = inspect.getfile(inspect.currentframe())
+    with open(current_file, 'rb') as file:
+        current_file_contents = file.read()
+
+    app = Sanic('test_static')
+    blueprint = Blueprint('test_static')
+
+    blueprint.static(current_file, '/testing.file')
+
+    app.blueprint(blueprint)
+
+    request, response = sanic_endpoint_test(app, uri='/testing.file')
+    assert response.status == 200
+    assert response.body == current_file_contents
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/test_static.py b/tests/test_static.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..314a0927
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_static.py
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+import inspect
+import os
+
+from sanic import Sanic
+from sanic.utils import sanic_endpoint_test
+
+def test_static_file():
+    current_file = inspect.getfile(inspect.currentframe())
+    with open(current_file, 'rb') as file:
+        current_file_contents = file.read()
+
+    app = Sanic('test_static')
+    app.static(current_file, '/testing.file')
+
+    request, response = sanic_endpoint_test(app, uri='/testing.file')
+    assert response.status == 200
+    assert response.body == current_file_contents
+
+def test_static_directory():
+    current_file = inspect.getfile(inspect.currentframe())
+    current_directory = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(current_file))
+    with open(current_file, 'rb') as file:
+        current_file_contents = file.read()
+
+    app = Sanic('test_static')
+    app.static(current_directory, '/dir')
+
+    request, response = sanic_endpoint_test(app, uri='/dir/test_static.py')
+    assert response.status == 200
+    assert response.body == current_file_contents
\ No newline at end of file