diff --git a/version/version.go b/version/version.go
index 31ba813c7e..6829ae3650 100644
--- a/version/version.go
+++ b/version/version.go
@@ -11,13 +11,13 @@ const validCharacters = "0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrs
 const (
 	appMajor uint = 0
 	appMinor uint = 12
-	appPatch uint = 17
+	appPatch uint = 18
 )
 
 // appBuild is defined as a variable so it can be overridden during the build
 // process with '-ldflags "-X github.com/kaspanet/kaspad/version.appBuild=foo"' if needed.
 // It MUST only contain characters from validCharacters.
-var appBuild string
+var appBuild string = "rc1"
 
 var version = "" // string used for memoization of version