IPv4 and Auctions

Thu Oct 24 12:33:16 UTC 2019

> On 24 Oct 2019, at 11:18 pm, Jon Lewis <jlewis at lewis.org> wrote:
> 
> On Thu, 24 Oct 2019, Matt Hoppes wrote:
> 
>> A thought crossed my mind the other day as I was having a discussion with someone.
>> 
>> Every entity is suppose to justify their need for IPv4 address space from ARIN. This was always (in recent history) the case.
>> 
>> No entity is suppose to be given more IPv4 space until they have nearly exhausted their previous space.
>> 
>> How is it, then, that we daily for the last 2-3 years have places like Hilco that have sometimes 15-20 large IPv4 blocks up for auction?
>> 
>> Supposedly we are completely out of IPv4 space, yet every day large blocks are being sold for money, yet they were never returned because they weren’t needed.
>> 
>> Another thought: being that IPv4 address space is essentially leased to you from ARIN, can you even legally auction your space to someone else? I know it’s happening, but it would almost be like me auctioning my apartment to another random person.
> 
> There are probably more qualified people who can answer this, but lots of IP space was handed out to organizations (and even to individuals) long before the RIRs like ARIN were created.  Those "assignments" / "allocations" (whatever you want to call them) are outside of the control of the RIRs because they had no involvement in them.
> 
> With more recent IP spaces that were first assigned/allocated by an RIR and are therefore regulated by the RIRs, I believe purchases of those IP blocks are contingent on getting RIR approval for the transfer, meaning the buyer, in addition to paying the seller, would have to justify their need to the appropriate RIR and get the RIR's blessing on the transfer.

And most of the pre-RIR allocations where also needs based.  I know I had to justify the B and 3 C’s I got back in ’88 from SRI-NIC (pre-CIDR).  Unfortunately I don’t have the paperwork anymore.  You had to do projected host estimates out several years.  4 sites with one with over 254 hosts ….

> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Jon Lewis, MCP :)           |  I route
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