Phase one has us use something in tcp headers, maybe something in the reserved area, to set a number. It's OK for that to just be maybe 1 to 4 even, or something small depending upon bit size requirements.
Since old systems won't use that reserved header space to determine anything, they'll ignore it. And new systems will exclusively use unroutable address space, like 240 being discussed here, for routing.
So old systems will drop the 240/ address space, but new systems will route it, as it will be 2.240.x.x.x. So only compliant systems will see the new address space ; the rest won't.
It won't help old systems, but it will mean new systems only using old address space, can speak to old systems, without breaking them.
Everyone loves sensible change, so unlike ipv6, ipv8 will only take 20 years! (What's ipv6 been out for, 25 years and not adopted yet?)