Tom Zander wrote:

> The version field is still needed to actually allow future block version upgrades. We would cut off our road forward if that were to be blocked.

I tend to agree, if all 32 bits were given up to grinding.

But it's worth pointing out that BIP9 is purely informational, and the top 3 bits are still reserved for other purposes. One of them could perhaps be used to signal for an extended version field somewhere else, leaving the bottom 29 as entropy?

Not a direction I prefer, but just a technical possibility perhaps.