On 18 Nov 2021, at 8:14 PM, bzs@theworld.com wrote:
That suggests an idea:
Repurpose these addresses and allow the RIRs to sell them in the IPv4 secondary markets with some earmark for the funds. Plus or minus perhaps some worthy causes for "free" (not quite free but old school) allocations. ...
(Sidestepping for the moment the question of technical merits of the proposal…) There’s this organization called the Internet Engineering Task Force that has been working hard to establish long-term financial independence and stability via the IETF Endowment project <https://www.ietf.org/endowment/ <https://www.ietf.org/endowment/>> – Several of the Internet community organizations have made substantial contributions to this goal, but much more will be needed if the IETF is to achieve long-term funding stability. Speaking entirely in my own personal capacity, I believe that long-term financial stability of the IETF is an extremely worthwhile goal for all of us to support and – to the extent that somehow changes to the IPv4 address specification result in a financial upside – I believe that the IETF Endowment would be a very appropriate beneficiary. FYI, /John p.s. Disclaimer: my views alone - contents may be hot and cause burns to unprotected surfaces. p.p.s. It is unclear if the involvement of the RIRs in such a monetization activity is beneficial or not, but also orthogonal to the point that using proceeds for the benefit of IETF Endowment would be a very worthwhile goal.