diff --git a/bigchaindb/__init__.py b/bigchaindb/__init__.py
index 3c94ca38..43278269 100644
--- a/bigchaindb/__init__.py
+++ b/bigchaindb/__init__.py
@@ -37,4 +37,4 @@ config = {
 # for more info.
 _config = copy.deepcopy(config)
 from bigchaindb.core import Bigchain  # noqa
-
+from bigchaindb.version import __version__  # noqa
diff --git a/bigchaindb/commands/utils.py b/bigchaindb/commands/utils.py
index 31d4a46d..c23b25ec 100644
--- a/bigchaindb/commands/utils.py
+++ b/bigchaindb/commands/utils.py
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@ for ``argparse.ArgumentParser``.
 import argparse
 import multiprocessing as mp
 
+from bigchaindb.version import __version__
+
 
 def start(parser, scope):
     """Utility function to execute a subcommand.
@@ -46,7 +48,7 @@ def start(parser, scope):
     func(args)
 
 
-base_parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(add_help=False)
+base_parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(add_help=False, prog='bigchaindb')
 
 base_parser.add_argument('-c', '--config',
                          help='Specify the location of the configuration file')
@@ -55,3 +57,7 @@ base_parser.add_argument('-y', '--yes', '--yes-please',
                          action='store_true',
                          help='Assume "yes" as answer to all prompts and run '
                               'non-interactively')
+
+base_parser.add_argument('-v', '--version',
+                         action='version',
+                         version='%(prog)s {}'.format(__version__))
diff --git a/bigchaindb/version.py b/bigchaindb/version.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..8902322a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bigchaindb/version.py
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+__version__ = '0.1.5'
+__short_version__ = '0.1'
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/docs/source/conf.py b/docs/source/conf.py
index 911c4673..be078160 100644
--- a/docs/source/conf.py
+++ b/docs/source/conf.py
@@ -30,6 +30,11 @@ from recommonmark.parser import CommonMarkParser
 # ones.
 import sphinx_rtd_theme
 
+# get version
+_version = {}
+with open('../../bigchaindb/version.py') as fp:
+    exec(fp.read(), _version)
+
 
 extensions = [
     'sphinx.ext.autodoc',
@@ -69,9 +74,9 @@ author = 'BigchainDB Contributors'
 # built documents.
 #
 # The short X.Y version.
-version = '0.1'
+version = _version['__short_version__']
 # The full version, including alpha/beta/rc tags.
-release = '0.1.5'
+release = _version['__version__']
 
 # The language for content autogenerated by Sphinx. Refer to documentation
 # for a list of supported languages.
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 4e26d7d8..fd63eb0c 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -6,6 +6,11 @@ For full docs visit https://bigchaindb.readthedocs.org
 """
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages
 
+# get the version
+version = {}
+with open('bigchaindb/version.py') as fp:
+    exec(fp.read(), version)
+
 tests_require = [
     'pytest',
     'coverage',
@@ -32,7 +37,7 @@ docs_require = [
 
 setup(
     name='BigchainDB',
-    version='0.1.5',
+    version=version['__version__'],
     description='BigchainDB: A Scalable Blockchain Database',
     long_description=__doc__,
     url='https://github.com/BigchainDB/bigchaindb/',