[arin-ppml] IP address auctions and managing uncertainty

[John Curran]

On Aug 30, 2011, at 7:07 PM, Seth Mattinen wrote:
> 
> I.e. winning the auction does not guarantee they will actually qualify
> for the space.

For sake of clarity, let's run down the most common permutations
with respect to bidder qualification:

1) A party holding address space in the ARIN region decides to 
   list it on an auction site, and makes plain that the only 
   valid bidders are those _who have qualified_ to receive per 
   the policies in this region.  This would imply that they 
   will confirm bidders against ARIN's Specified Transfer
   Listing Service, and reject any bids from parties not 
   listed there. It's a fairly straight forward process to use 
   the specified transfer listing service for verification, 
   and not really possible to do otherwise (while ARIN has 
   no position, per se, on use of auctions or brokers to find
   address space for transfer, ARIN does need to provide the
   basic capabilities that only it can which enable others to 
   use and offer such services with certainty.)

2) A party holding address space in the ARIN region decides to 
   list it on an auction site, and makes plain that the only 
   valid bidders are those _who will meet the policies_ in the
   region.  This is less certain, since there's an implicit
   assumption that bidders will know that they're qualified
   and therefore that the transfer will complete.  Parties 
   need to prepared for that possibility that the bidder 
   cannot complete the transaction (which is commonly dealt 
   with in the online auction world by invalidating the bidder
   and asking the next bidder if they wish to step in, etc.)

3) A party holding address space in the ARIN region decides to
   list it on an auction site, and does not state anything with
   respect to qualifications of bidders as valid recipients.  
   There is exists a significant chance of expectation mismatch 
   between seller and bidder when it comes to requirements of 
   both parties in closing the transaction. Indeed, the seller 
   is likely to receive a question in the auction from me asking 
   if they could be more explicit in any manner with respect to 
   buyer requirements as well as an open invitation to contact 
   ARIN regarding such transfers. It remains possible that a 
   successful transfer will emerge from such a situation, but 
   I'm not aware of any taking place to date.

I hope that this helps clarify some of the possibilities with 
respect to the auctions and bidder qualifications.

FYI,
/John

John Curran
President and CEO
ARIN