diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index df87c1633..603c35a4a 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -28,7 +28,11 @@ BUG FIXES:
 - Graceful handling/recovery for apps that have non-determinism or fail to halt
 - Graceful handling/recovery for violations of safety, or liveness
 
-## 0.12.0 (TBA)
+## 0.12.0 (TBD)
+
+IMPROVEMENTS:
+ - genesis doc: added `app_options` field, which, along with the other fields,
+   will be returned upon `/genesis` rpc call.
 
 ## 0.11.1 (October 10, 2017)
 
diff --git a/types/genesis.go b/types/genesis.go
index f1b2736f8..e33f60258 100644
--- a/types/genesis.go
+++ b/types/genesis.go
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ import (
 
 	"github.com/pkg/errors"
 
-	"github.com/tendermint/go-crypto"
+	crypto "github.com/tendermint/go-crypto"
 	"github.com/tendermint/go-wire/data"
 	cmn "github.com/tendermint/tmlibs/common"
 )
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ type GenesisDoc struct {
 	ConsensusParams *ConsensusParams   `json:"consensus_params,omitempty"`
 	Validators      []GenesisValidator `json:"validators"`
 	AppHash         data.Bytes         `json:"app_hash"`
+	AppOptions      interface{}        `json:"app_options,omitempty"`
 }
 
 // SaveAs is a utility method for saving GenensisDoc as a JSON file.
diff --git a/types/genesis_test.go b/types/genesis_test.go
index 0028f51ed..214bae40e 100644
--- a/types/genesis_test.go
+++ b/types/genesis_test.go
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ func TestGenesis(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 
 	// test a good one by raw json
-	genDocBytes := []byte(`{"genesis_time":"0001-01-01T00:00:00Z","chain_id":"test-chain-QDKdJr","consensus_params":null,"validators":[{"pub_key":{"type":"ed25519","data":"961EAB8752E51A03618502F55C2B6E09C38C65635C64CCF3173ED452CF86C957"},"power":10,"name":""}],"app_hash":""}`)
+	genDocBytes := []byte(`{"genesis_time":"0001-01-01T00:00:00Z","chain_id":"test-chain-QDKdJr","consensus_params":null,"validators":[{"pub_key":{"type":"ed25519","data":"961EAB8752E51A03618502F55C2B6E09C38C65635C64CCF3173ED452CF86C957"},"power":10,"name":""}],"app_hash":"","app_options":{"account_owner": "Bob"}}`)
 	_, err := GenesisDocFromJSON(genDocBytes)
 	assert.NoError(t, err, "expected no error for good genDoc json")
 
diff --git a/types/validator_set_test.go b/types/validator_set_test.go
index 71a1993e7..69f25d620 100644
--- a/types/validator_set_test.go
+++ b/types/validator_set_test.go
@@ -5,8 +5,8 @@ import (
 	"strings"
 	"testing"
 
-	cmn "github.com/tendermint/tmlibs/common"
 	"github.com/tendermint/go-crypto"
+	cmn "github.com/tendermint/tmlibs/common"
 )
 
 func randPubKey() crypto.PubKey {