> On May 19, 2016, at 07:41 , Mueller, Milton L <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
>  
>   <>
> From: Owen DeLong [mailto:[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>] 
> 
>  
> Transfers are not rationed by price…
>  
> MM: False. This is like saying white is black. Transfers involve a payment by 
> the receiving party. They are, therefore, rationed by price. Not much room 
> for debate here. You’re just wrong. 

Rationed: a fixed allowance of provisions or food, especially for soldiers or 
sailors or for civilians during a shortage: a daily ration of meat and bread. 
2. an allotted amount: They finally saved up enough gas rations for the trip.

I simply do not agree with you that price constitutes any sort of limitation on 
the amount of resources that can be acquired by an organization with 
sufficiently deep pockets.

Therefore, you are simply wrong.

> Price does not ensure that the purchaser has actual need for the resources, 
> it merely insures that they have monetary resources that they are willing to 
> trade for number resources.
>  
> MM: It means that they value the resources and thus have some kind of need 
> for them. There are 1,000 other things they could spend that money on but the 
> buyer has determined that the value they will get out of the numbers is at 
> least equal to the value of the money they spend.

It means that they believe the resources have value. That is different from 
having need for them or from valuing them. This is the sophistry in which you 
consistently engage hoping nobody will notice the inaccuracy in your statement.

For example, I may perceive that a stock has value or will have a greater value 
in the future. I may purchase the stock on that basis. It does not mean that I 
value the particular stock or the company it represents. It further does not 
mean that I have any need whatsoever for the stock other than my hope that its 
value will increase and that I can sell it at a gain.

> You’ve presented no evidence whatsoever to support your conclusion that 
> stringent needs assessment raises the price
>  
> In fact, in the RIPE region where there are virtually no needs-based 
> controls, according to the brokers I have discussed things with, prices are 
> rising more rapidly than in the ARIN region, which would in fact appear to 
> suggest that our needs-assessment regime is, in fact, holding prices down.
>  
> MM: Facts? Citations to specific transactions? I am always open to evidence.

These are facts. Feel free to discuss the pricing trends in RIPE vs. ARIN 
regions with any of the brokers. I cannot cite specific transactions because I 
am not directly familiar with the details of most of them and I am under NDA 
for the ones that I do know about. However, that does not discredit my general 
claim that both the transactions of which I am aware of the specifics, and the 
discussions I have had with several brokers have indicated that prices are 
generally higher in the RIPE region than in the ARIN region.

> If we eliminate needs assessment, what mechanism assures that the transferee 
> is actually a network operator? Further, how does it in any way assure that 
> the transfer is from a place of less need to a place of greater need rather 
> than a place of limited need to a place of greater monetary resources?
>  
> MM: This is not the place to rectify your general lack of familiarity with 
> economics. But you seem to think that people with “greater monetary 
> resources” simply throw them at anything that moves. In fact, in the real 
> world, everyone tries to maximize the value they get from whatever resources 
> they have. So if someone pays for addresses, it is a very reliable indicator 
> that they need them for something. Most if not all of the organizations that 
> can derive value from numbers are network operators.  The threat of massive 
> speculation is a bogeyman you have invented – there is no evidence that it 
> exists. The only “speculation and hoarding” that currently exists is the 
> holding of number resources by current assignees who don’t need them. And 
> stringent needs assessment freezes that problem into place. Sorry to say it, 
> but you, Owen, are one of the greatest defenders of hoarding.  

I am not alone in thinking that this is often true. As cases in point, I give 
you the Pet Rock, several of P.T. Barnum’s exploits, John Travolta’s personal 
727, the Fry Brothers (of Fry’s Electronics fame) personal 747.

If someone pays for addresses, it is an indicator that one of two things is 
true… 1. They have a use for the addresses that they believe is at least as 
valuable as the price paid, or, 2. They have a belief that the market value of 
the addresses in the future will exceed the cost of obtaining and holding them 
until that time.

Your continuing to insist that the second of these two possibilities does not 
exist is absurd. If it were not true, we would not have stock markets, day 
traders, mutual funds, or most of the other things regulated by the securities 
and exchange commission.

This is not my general lack of familiarity with economics and your continued ad 
hominem attacks do nothing to change the falsity of your argument.

> You start with an assumption that you are correct in your conjecture and then 
> act as if it is everyone else’s duty to provide evidence that your 
> speculation is not correct. The reality is that these are judgment calls 
> based on limited experience and while we do know that needs assessment does, 
> in fact, work to some extent, there is very limited experience without it. 
> Unfortunately, once it is eliminated, it will be virtually impossible to put 
> the genie back in the bottle, so people are understandably cautious about 
> opening the bottle all at once.

Where, exactly, do you see conjecture? It is a fact that if we commoditize IPv4 
addresses, we will enable them to be treated as an investment vehicle, just 
like many other forms of property both real and personal. You’ve provided no 
reasoning whatsoever that distinguishes IPv4 address registrations from real 
estate, collectibles, or any of a host of other forms of property in this 
regard.

It is not conjecture when I say that there are people who invest in these other 
things in a variety of ways, some of which are speculative. I have no reason 
whatsoever to believe that commoditizing IPv4 addresses would not enable 
similar forms of speculation in addresses.

Your continued claims to the contrary appear to ignore the realities of other 
unregulated commodities.

If you need further examples, I point you to the Chicago Merchantile Exchange.

Owen

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