diff --git a/config/config.go b/config/config.go
index 8918efb82..16e89a457 100644
--- a/config/config.go
+++ b/config/config.go
@@ -282,10 +282,11 @@ func loadConfig() (*Config, []string, error) {
 		}
 	}
 
-	// Show the version and exit if the version flag was specified.
 	appName := filepath.Base(os.Args[0])
 	appName = strings.TrimSuffix(appName, filepath.Ext(appName))
 	usageMessage := fmt.Sprintf("Use %s -h to show usage", appName)
+
+	// Show the version and exit if the version flag was specified.
 	if preCfg.ShowVersion {
 		fmt.Println(appName, "version", version.Version())
 		os.Exit(0)
diff --git a/peer/peer_test.go b/peer/peer_test.go
index d742f72eb..1c50005cc 100644
--- a/peer/peer_test.go
+++ b/peer/peer_test.go
@@ -5,13 +5,14 @@
 package peer_test
 
 import (
-	"github.com/pkg/errors"
 	"io"
 	"net"
 	"strconv"
 	"testing"
 	"time"
 
+	"github.com/pkg/errors"
+
 	"github.com/btcsuite/go-socks/socks"
 	"github.com/kaspanet/kaspad/dagconfig"
 	"github.com/kaspanet/kaspad/peer"
@@ -241,8 +242,8 @@ func TestPeerConnection(t *testing.T) {
 		wantLastPingNonce:   uint64(0),
 		wantLastPingMicros:  int64(0),
 		wantTimeOffset:      int64(0),
-		wantBytesSent:       201, // 177 version + 24 verack
-		wantBytesReceived:   201,
+		wantBytesSent:       195, // 171 version + 24 verack
+		wantBytesReceived:   195,
 	}
 	wantStats2 := peerStats{
 		wantUserAgent:       wire.DefaultUserAgent + "peer:1.0(comment)/",
@@ -255,8 +256,8 @@ func TestPeerConnection(t *testing.T) {
 		wantLastPingNonce:   uint64(0),
 		wantLastPingMicros:  int64(0),
 		wantTimeOffset:      int64(0),
-		wantBytesSent:       201, // 177 version + 24 verack
-		wantBytesReceived:   201,
+		wantBytesSent:       195, // 171 version + 24 verack
+		wantBytesReceived:   195,
 	}
 
 	tests := []struct {
diff --git a/rpcmodel/rpc_results.go b/rpcmodel/rpc_results.go
index c273ade50..41e32835a 100644
--- a/rpcmodel/rpc_results.go
+++ b/rpcmodel/rpc_results.go
@@ -417,7 +417,7 @@ type GetWorkResult struct {
 
 // InfoDAGResult models the data returned by the kaspa rpc server getinfo command.
 type InfoDAGResult struct {
-	Version         int32   `json:"version"`
+	Version         string  `json:"version"`
 	ProtocolVersion int32   `json:"protocolVersion"`
 	Blocks          uint64  `json:"blocks"`
 	TimeOffset      int64   `json:"timeOffset"`
diff --git a/server/p2p/p2p.go b/server/p2p/p2p.go
index b6ba41438..931624604 100644
--- a/server/p2p/p2p.go
+++ b/server/p2p/p2p.go
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ var (
 
 	// userAgentVersion is the user agent version and is used to help
 	// identify ourselves to other kaspa peers.
-	userAgentVersion = fmt.Sprintf("%d.%d.%d", version.AppMajor, version.AppMinor, version.AppPatch)
+	userAgentVersion = version.Version()
 )
 
 // onionAddr implements the net.Addr interface and represents a tor address.
diff --git a/server/rpc/handle_get_info.go b/server/rpc/handle_get_info.go
index d24c93895..9140d31b0 100644
--- a/server/rpc/handle_get_info.go
+++ b/server/rpc/handle_get_info.go
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ import (
 // that are not related to wallet functionality.
 func handleGetInfo(s *Server, cmd interface{}, closeChan <-chan struct{}) (interface{}, error) {
 	ret := &rpcmodel.InfoDAGResult{
-		Version:         int32(1000000*version.AppMajor + 10000*version.AppMinor + 100*version.AppPatch),
+		Version:         version.Version(),
 		ProtocolVersion: int32(maxProtocolVersion),
 		Blocks:          s.cfg.DAG.BlockCount(),
 		TimeOffset:      int64(s.cfg.TimeSource.Offset().Seconds()),
diff --git a/version/version.go b/version/version.go
index a9011cd9c..4b3a0d985 100644
--- a/version/version.go
+++ b/version/version.go
@@ -1,72 +1,50 @@
-// Copyright (c) 2013-2014 The btcsuite developers
-// Use of this source code is governed by an ISC
-// license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
-
 package version
 
 import (
-	"bytes"
 	"fmt"
 	"strings"
 )
 
-// semanticAlphabet
-const semanticAlphabet = "0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz-"
+// validCharacters  is a list of characters valid in the appBuild string
+const validCharacters = "0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz-"
 
-// These constants define the application version and follow the semantic
-// versioning 2.0.0 spec (http://semver.org/).
 const (
-	AppMajor uint = 0
-	AppMinor uint = 12
-	AppPatch uint = 0
-
-	// appPreRelease MUST only contain characters from semanticAlphabet
-	// per the semantic versioning spec.
-	appPreRelease = "beta"
+	appMajor uint = 0
+	appMinor uint = 1
+	appPatch uint = 0
 )
 
 // appBuild is defined as a variable so it can be overridden during the build
-// process with '-ldflags "-X main.appBuild foo' if needed. It MUST only
-// contain characters from semanticAlphabet per the semantic versioning spec.
+// process with '-ldflags "-X github.com/kaspanet/kaspad/version.appBuild=foo"' if needed.
+// It MUST only contain characters from validCharacters.
 var appBuild string
 
-// Version returns the application version as a properly formed string per the
-// semantic versioning 2.0.0 spec (http://semver.org/).
+var version = "" // string used for memoization of version
+
+// Version returns the application version as a properly formed string
 func Version() string {
-	// Start with the major, minor, and patch versions.
-	version := fmt.Sprintf("%d.%d.%d", AppMajor, AppMinor, AppPatch)
+	if version == "" {
+		// Start with the major, minor, and patch versions.
+		version = fmt.Sprintf("%d.%d.%d", appMajor, appMinor, appPatch)
 
-	// Append pre-release version if there is one. The hyphen called for
-	// by the semantic versioning spec is automatically appended and should
-	// not be contained in the pre-release string. The pre-release version
-	// is not appended if it contains invalid characters.
-	preRelease := normalizeVerString(appPreRelease)
-	if preRelease != "" {
-		version = fmt.Sprintf("%s-%s", version, preRelease)
-	}
+		// Append build metadata if there is any. The build metadata
+		// string is not appended if it contains invalid characters.
+		if appBuild != "" {
+			checkAppBuild(appBuild)
 
-	// Append build metadata if there is any. The plus called for
-	// by the semantic versioning spec is automatically appended and should
-	// not be contained in the build metadata string. The build metadata
-	// string is not appended if it contains invalid characters.
-	build := normalizeVerString(appBuild)
-	if build != "" {
-		version = fmt.Sprintf("%s+%s", version, build)
+			version = fmt.Sprintf("%s-%s", version, appBuild)
+		}
 	}
 
 	return version
 }
 
-// normalizeVerString returns the passed string stripped of all characters which
-// are not valid according to the semantic versioning guidelines for pre-release
-// version and build metadata strings. In particular they MUST only contain
-// characters in semanticAlphabet.
-func normalizeVerString(str string) string {
-	var result bytes.Buffer
-	for _, r := range str {
-		if strings.ContainsRune(semanticAlphabet, r) {
-			result.WriteRune(r)
+// checkAppBuild returns the passed string unless it contains any characters not in validCharacters
+// If any invalid characters are encountered - an empty string is returned
+func checkAppBuild(appBuild string) {
+	for _, r := range appBuild {
+		if !strings.ContainsRune(validCharacters, r) {
+			panic(fmt.Errorf("appBuild string (%s) contains forbidden characters. Only alphanumeric characters and dashes are allowed", appBuild))
 		}
 	}
-	return result.String()
 }
diff --git a/wire/message_test.go b/wire/message_test.go
index 6cb5114d2..40f97d7c1 100644
--- a/wire/message_test.go
+++ b/wire/message_test.go
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ func TestMessage(t *testing.T) {
 		kaspaNet KaspaNet // Network to use for wire encoding
 		bytes    int      // Expected num bytes read/written
 	}{
-		{msgVersion, msgVersion, pver, MainNet, 159},
+		{msgVersion, msgVersion, pver, MainNet, 153},
 		{msgVerack, msgVerack, pver, MainNet, 24},
 		{msgGetAddr, msgGetAddr, pver, MainNet, 26},
 		{msgAddr, msgAddr, pver, MainNet, 27},