IPV4 as a Commodity for Profit

Mon Feb 18 20:06:45 UTC 2008

Brandon,

On Feb 18, 2008, at 9:18 AM, Brandon Galbraith wrote:
> Markets have a history of efficiently allocating resources, this  
> much is true. My concern is when IP allocations are based on fiscal  
> merit instead of technical merit. Also, don't forget speculators  
> within a market. Do you really want the price of IP blocks bid up by  
> "IP day traders"?

Presumably, the market would occur when the IPv4 address free pool has  
been exhausted.  Without a market, there will be no IPv4 address  
space.  With a market, IPv4 address space will be available at a  
price.  That price will be constrained by the cost the IPv4-desirous  
ISP would face in deploying IPv6 + NAT-PT.  If IPv6 + NAT-PT isn't  
sufficient, the IPv4-desirous ISP will face a choice of paying  
whatever the market will bear or doing without (implying double/triple  
NAT, etc.) since there won't be any other alternatives.

It's not clear to me how many people actually understand the  
implication of IPv4 free pool exhaustion...

Regards,
-drc