These versions are also useful to avoid accidental interconnections of compatible but separate networks. It is only a bullet point in a long list, so its importance can be missed but it allows:
- The running of an independent local network without risk of interference with the global network
- And, more importantly, the coexistence of several competing global networks
These versions are not just numbers. By looking into crust code, I can determine that one of these versions is given by NETWORK_VERSION environment variable at build time and could be any string. In my understanding this is the variable that must be defined to launch an independent network.
In theory we don’t need versions to manage several networks if seeds files are handled carefully, but errors happen easily and an interconnection between two independent networks could create damages to both of them. So this version control seems essential to me.