diff --git a/CHANGELOG_PENDING.md b/CHANGELOG_PENDING.md
index 7d699e63a..3c1aa8213 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG_PENDING.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG_PENDING.md
@@ -25,6 +25,8 @@ Friendly reminder: We have a [bug bounty program](https://hackerone.com/tendermi
   - [ABCI] \#5447 Remove `SetOption` method from `ABCI.Client` interface
   - [ABCI] \#5447 Reset `Oneof` indexes for  `Request` and `Response`.
   - [ABCI] \#5818 Use protoio for msg length delimitation. Migrates from int64 to uint64 length delimiters.
+  - [Version] \#6494 `TMCoreSemVer` has been renamed to `TMVersion`.
+    - It is not required any longer to set ldflags to set version strings
 
 - P2P Protocol
 
diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index b7223d5f3..a8bc8aa8f 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -245,6 +245,7 @@ If there were no release candidates, and you'd like to cut a major release direc
      all PRs
    - Ensure that UPGRADING.md is up-to-date and includes notes on any breaking changes
       or other upgrading flows.
+   - Bump TMVersionDefault version in  `version.go`
    - Bump P2P and block protocol versions in  `version.go`, if necessary
    - Bump ABCI protocol version in `version.go`, if necessary
    - Add any release notes you would like to be added to the body of the release to `release_notes.md`.
@@ -272,6 +273,7 @@ If there were no release candidates, and you'd like to cut a major release direc
      release, and add the github aliases of external contributors to the top of
      the changelog. To lookup an alias from an email, try `bash ./scripts/authors.sh <email>`
    - Reset the `CHANGELOG_PENDING.md`
+   - Bump TMVersionDefault version in  `version.go`
    - Bump P2P and block protocol versions in  `version.go`, if necessary
    - Bump ABCI protocol version in `version.go`, if necessary
    - Make sure all significant breaking changes are covered in `UPGRADING.md`
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 66d11dd6a..be5972397 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ else
 VERSION := $(shell git describe)
 endif
 
-LD_FLAGS = -X github.com/tendermint/tendermint/version.TMCoreSemVer=$(VERSION)
+LD_FLAGS = -X github.com/tendermint/tendermint/version.TMVersion=$(VERSION)
 BUILD_FLAGS = -mod=readonly -ldflags "$(LD_FLAGS)"
 HTTPS_GIT := https://github.com/tendermint/tendermint.git
 DOCKER_BUF := docker run -v $(shell pwd):/workspace --workdir /workspace bufbuild/buf
diff --git a/cmd/tendermint/commands/version.go b/cmd/tendermint/commands/version.go
index d1a7fba58..c23fd74c3 100644
--- a/cmd/tendermint/commands/version.go
+++ b/cmd/tendermint/commands/version.go
@@ -13,6 +13,6 @@ var VersionCmd = &cobra.Command{
 	Use:   "version",
 	Short: "Show version info",
 	Run: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
-		fmt.Println(version.TMCoreSemVer)
+		fmt.Println(version.TMVersion)
 	},
 }
diff --git a/node/setup.go b/node/setup.go
index 45ca5e01e..0d21b9171 100644
--- a/node/setup.go
+++ b/node/setup.go
@@ -152,7 +152,7 @@ func doHandshake(
 func logNodeStartupInfo(state sm.State, pubKey crypto.PubKey, logger, consensusLogger log.Logger, mode string) {
 	// Log the version info.
 	logger.Info("Version info",
-		"software", version.TMCoreSemVer,
+		"tmVersion", version.TMVersion,
 		"block", version.BlockProtocol,
 		"p2p", version.P2PProtocol,
 		"mode", mode,
@@ -704,7 +704,7 @@ func makeNodeInfo(
 		),
 		NodeID:  nodeKey.ID,
 		Network: genDoc.ChainID,
-		Version: version.TMCoreSemVer,
+		Version: version.TMVersion,
 		Channels: []byte{
 			bcChannel,
 			byte(cs.StateChannel),
@@ -753,7 +753,7 @@ func makeSeedNodeInfo(
 		),
 		NodeID:   nodeKey.ID,
 		Network:  genDoc.ChainID,
-		Version:  version.TMCoreSemVer,
+		Version:  version.TMVersion,
 		Channels: []byte{},
 		Moniker:  config.Moniker,
 		Other: p2p.NodeInfoOther{
diff --git a/proxy/version.go b/proxy/version.go
index 110757028..6d70c3a72 100644
--- a/proxy/version.go
+++ b/proxy/version.go
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ import (
 // the abci.RequestInfo message during handshake with the app.
 // It contains only compile-time version information.
 var RequestInfo = abci.RequestInfo{
-	Version:      version.TMCoreSemVer,
+	Version:      version.TMVersion,
 	BlockVersion: version.BlockProtocol,
 	P2PVersion:   version.P2PProtocol,
 	AbciVersion:  version.ABCIVersion,
diff --git a/state/state.go b/state/state.go
index 9f5f02c7a..d5362fc40 100644
--- a/state/state.go
+++ b/state/state.go
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ var InitStateVersion = Version{
 		Block: version.BlockProtocol,
 		App:   0,
 	},
-	Software: version.TMCoreSemVer,
+	Software: version.TMVersion,
 }
 
 func (v *Version) ToProto() tmstate.Version {
diff --git a/statesync/syncer_test.go b/statesync/syncer_test.go
index ad8100123..42f4156f3 100644
--- a/statesync/syncer_test.go
+++ b/statesync/syncer_test.go
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ func TestSyncer_SyncAny(t *testing.T) {
 				Block: version.BlockProtocol,
 				App:   0,
 			},
-			Software: version.TMCoreSemVer,
+			Software: version.TMVersion,
 		},
 
 		LastBlockHeight: 1,
diff --git a/tools/tm-signer-harness/main.go b/tools/tm-signer-harness/main.go
index 65cba32ed..af730666c 100644
--- a/tools/tm-signer-harness/main.go
+++ b/tools/tm-signer-harness/main.go
@@ -185,7 +185,7 @@ func main() {
 		}
 		extractKey(flagTMHome, flagKeyOutputPath)
 	case "version":
-		fmt.Println(version.TMCoreSemVer)
+		fmt.Println(version.TMVersion)
 	default:
 		fmt.Printf("Unrecognized command: %s\n", flag.Arg(0))
 		os.Exit(1)
diff --git a/version/version.go b/version/version.go
index 74c6df2c1..9774de653 100644
--- a/version/version.go
+++ b/version/version.go
@@ -3,12 +3,14 @@ package version
 import tmversion "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/proto/tendermint/version"
 
 var (
-	// TMCoreSemVer is the current version of Tendermint Core.
-	// It's the Semantic Version of the software.
-	TMCoreSemVer string
+	TMVersion = TMVersionDefault
 )
 
 const (
+
+	// TMVersionDefault is the used as the fallback version of Tendermint Core
+	// when not using git describe. It is formatted with semantic versioning.
+	TMVersionDefault = "0.34.10"
 	// ABCISemVer is the semantic version of the ABCI library
 	ABCISemVer = "0.17.0"