diff --git a/release.sh b/release.sh
index 52c6fd1..66dd166 100755
--- a/release.sh
+++ b/release.sh
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ die () {
     exit 1
 }
 
-for command in help2man cargo-release; do
+for command in help2man cargo-release sed; do
     if ! command -v $command &> /dev/null
     then
         echo "$command binary could not be found"
@@ -17,6 +17,8 @@ done
 [ "$#" -eq 1 ] || die "usage: ./release.sh [patch|major|minor|rc]"
 git diff --quiet || die 'ERROR: git repo is dirty.'
 
+OLD_VERSION="v$(cargo pkgid -p shared | cut -d '#' -f 2)"
+
 cargo release "$1" --no-confirm --exclude "hostsfile" --exclude "publicip"
 
 # re-stage the manpage commit and the cargo-release commit
@@ -30,8 +32,9 @@ for binary in "innernet" "innernet-server"; do
 done
 
 git add doc
+perl -pi -e "s/$OLD_VERSION/$VERSION/g" README.md
 
-VERSION="$(cargo pkgid -p shared | cut -d '#' -f 2)"
+VERSION="v$(cargo pkgid -p shared | cut -d '#' -f 2)"
 
-git commit -m "meta: release v$VERSION"
-git tag -a "v$VERSION" -m "release v$VERSION"
+git commit -m "meta: release $VERSION"
+git tag -a "$VERSION" -m "release $VERSION"