To tie this thread in with another long running nanog thread, this approach also solves the stale bogon filters problem. Don't like being in 69/8? Sell your space and use the proceeds to buy more established space. Want to make some money in address space development? Buy up 69/8 space and do the legwork of getting the bogon filters updated to improve the value of your investment. This idea is far from new. Well respected folk even wrote internet drafts on it. Check out the piara archives from '96. Bradley Brandon Ross wrote:
The solution to the problems posted in this thread about ARIN is fairly simple. It's time to deregulate the IP address market and convert to a free market approach to allocating IP addresses. If address space could be bought and sold on a free market you would no longer have to justify your address space to anyone, saving untold amount of resources and costs pulling these reports together. Of course, address space wouldn't be wasted the way it is today by organizations that hoard it, or by companies that go out of business because it would make sound financial sense to sell what you don't need.
ARIN (and the other registries as well) could still exist and function as a central repository (think of a title registry) of information about the current ownership of address blocks.