[arin-ppml] Advisory Council Recommendation Regarding NRPM 4.1.8. Unmet Requests

[John Curran]

On 16 May 2019, at 10:01 AM, Tom Fantacone <tom at iptrading.com> wrote:
> 
> At 06:18 PM 5/15/2019, John Curran wrote:
>> On 15 May 2019, at 2:47 PM, Tom Fantacone <tom at iptrading.com> wrote:
>> > If we remove the waiting list activity of this one fraudster, how much
>> > "statistically likely" fraud is left?
>> > Was this one bad actor so bad that he accounted for almost all the likely
>> > fraud on the waiting list?
>> > Do we still even have a waiting list problem?
>> 
>> Approximately half of the address blocks that were received from the waiting list and subsequently transferreed are affiliated with MICFO entities.
> 
> That's a lot of addresses and a high percentage of all waiting list allocations.  The genesis of ARIN suspending the waiting list and requesting/recommending changes to it to prevent fraud was the appearance of  "likely fraud" based on the behavior of a small handful of bad actors robbing the waiting list of a large number of addresses.  Am I right to assume that there was really one bad actor (with a handful of bad aliases)?

Indeterminate – there are other large blocks that have been conveniently transferred shortly after one, but lack similar clear evidence of fraud. 

> Obviously ARIN cannot state with certainty that there is no other fraud on the list, but if Micfo and its entities had never done what they did, would ARIN have even seen a problem with the waiting list?

Indeterminate. 

> If virtually all this misbehavior was this one guy, and he's been stopped, do we still want to change the waiting list system and hurt the overwhelming majority of honest players?

There is a useful question for the community to revisit in any case regarding the purpose of the waiting list policy…  What are the goals, and therefore what policy is most appropriate? 

Some have argued that no such policy is needed at all, and ARIN should simply monetize the number resources and use the proceeds in a manner aligned with its mission and productive to the community, whereas others have indicated that the policy provides an important option for smaller ISPs and organizations who may not be aware of IPv4 runout and are not readily positioned to go the marketplace.   (Neither of these views supports the waiting list policy which was suspended, as it served far more than simply smaller entities.) 

> Thanks, John.  I was looking for totals but the list was easy enough to import into a spreadsheet and tally up.  By my count the space being requested totals to roughly 825K addresses, and about 775K is the "minimum acceptable size" total.  The 500K addresses ARIN is reclaiming will go a long way in satisfying that demand.
> 
> Are any of the existing waiting list requests from Micfo entities or have those already been scrubbed?

Scrubbed, as the “marketing” entities involved no longer have service agreements with ARIN.

Thanks,
/John

John Curran
President and CEO
American Registry for Internet Numbers