[discuss] we need to fix what may be broken

[John Curran]

On Apr 19, 2014, at 2:56 AM, Barry Shein <bzs at world.std.com> wrote:
> On April 18, 2014 at 13:40 drc at virtualized.org (David Conrad) wrote:
> ...
>> 
>> The average user will notice either an increase in price or a degradation of service.  The price increase will be due to ISPs passing on the cost of having to obtain addresses on the market, deploy really expensive CGN, or deploy IPv6. All three have a cost: it remains to be seen which is lowest. The degradation of service will result from multiple layers of NAT the average (non-IPv6) user will need to traverse.  Whether that degradation of service is sufficient to drive IPv6 adoption also remains to be seen.
> 
> Right now to the best of my knowledge there is no "market", other than
> various sub-rosa schemes, but ok.

There is already the ability to transfer rights to IPv4 address blocks; 
this has existed for decades but has been little used till recently.
See <https://www.arin.net/resources/transfers/index.html> for details
regarding transfers in the ARIN region.  There are even brokers and 
various listing services available.

>> Not really since this implies a top-down model. ICANN does not control RIR policy.  While I might agree secondary IPv4 markets are bigger than something each RIR should proceed with independently, there currently does not exist any mechanism by which that issue can be addressed (pun intended). As some folks on this list can tell you, this is a topic I've beat my head against for more than a decade.
> 
> I know, it's a complicated issue going all the way down to who "owns"
> those addresses.
> 
> But it was just an example. ICANN might not have the legal force to
> compel the RIRs to participate in a IPv4 secondary market.
> 
> But if it were a reasonable vision they might all agree to something
> amicably. For example, before someone else does it. Markets require
> capitalization.

It's already happening in multiple regions; based on policies developed
by the community...  There is even inter-RIR transfers going on, based 
on compatible policies between the ARIN and APNIC regions.  Stats here -
<https://www.arin.net/knowledge/statistics/transfers.html>

Note that necessity is an excellent forcing function, and if there is 
actual need for policies supporting increased secondary markets for IPv4, 
then I'm fairly certain that they will emerge as IP address community 
perceives of the need.  This ability to let the community set policy, 
via uneven stumbling at times, it precisely the principle that many of 
us see as fundamental to successful global coordination of Internet 
identifiers (and the antithesis of the "visionary leadership" model 
that so often fails in mandatory top-down approaches)

FYI,
/John

Disclaimer: My views alone.