[arin-ppml] IPv4 Transfer Policy Change to Keep Whois Accurate

[Matthew Kaufman]

On 5/12/2011 2:57 AM, Owen DeLong wrote:
> On May 11, 2011, at 7:41 PM, Mike Burns wrote:
>
>
>> There ARE other addresses available, I have heard that you are aware of IPv6.
>>
> Sigh... Even I am not going to attempt to claim that IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are
> interchangeable equivalents.
>

I keep hearing arguments that the price of IPv4 addresses won't go 
infinitely high because at some price it'll be more cost-effective to 
switch to IPv6 than to try to keep shuffling the IPv4 deck chairs.

If that is true, then IPv4 and IPv6 addresses *are* economically 
interchangeable, just as coal is an imperfect substitute for natural gas 
when it comes to generating electric power... at some point the cost of 
one or the other gets high enough that the cost of switching is lower.

>> And with my policy or without my policy, addresses are bound to flow to the highest bidder.
> If the highest bidder is limited to only those addresses he can justify, then the addresses he
> couldn't justify flow to the next highest bidder. If the highest bidder is not so limited, then, the
> addresses likely flow to a very small number of very well capitalized entities to the extreme
> detriment of smaller entities.

The addresses will likely flow to a very small number of very well 
capitalized entities in any event... the only question is what type of 
entity they are. In Mike's world they flow to folks who do things like 
lease address space and sell blocks at high prices to people who really 
need them... in your world they flow to the top N ISPs that are experts 
at showing need, aren't constrained by the 3-month rules, and are 
growing sufficiently to justify anything.

In Mike's world, you can get service from whoever you want but the price 
of space is high... in your world the price of (what is now 
provider-assigned) space is high and your choice of transit providers is 
limited.

In theory both of these options are bad enough that people switch to IPv6.

Matthew Kaufman