On Thu, 24 Oct 2019, Matt Hoppes wrote:
A thought crossed my mind the other day as I was having a discussion with
someone.
Every entity is suppose to justify their need for IPv4 address space from ARIN.
This was always (in recent history) the case.
No entity is suppose to be given more IPv4 space until they have nearly
exhausted their previous space.
How is it, then, that we daily for the last 2-3 years have places like Hilco
that have sometimes 15-20 large IPv4 blocks up for auction?
Supposedly we are completely out of IPv4 space, yet every day large blocks are
being sold for money, yet they were never returned because they weren’t needed.
Another thought: being that IPv4 address space is essentially leased to you
from ARIN, can you even legally auction your space to someone else? I know it’s
happening, but it would almost be like me auctioning my apartment to another
random person.
There are probably more qualified people who can answer this, but lots of
IP space was handed out to organizations (and even to individuals) long
before the RIRs like ARIN were created. Those "assignments" /
"allocations" (whatever you want to call them) are outside of the control
of the RIRs because they had no involvement in them.
With more recent IP spaces that were first assigned/allocated by an RIR
and are therefore regulated by the RIRs, I believe purchases of those IP
blocks are contingent on getting RIR approval for the transfer, meaning
the buyer, in addition to paying the seller, would have to justify their
need to the appropriate RIR and get the RIR's blessing on the transfer.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jon Lewis, MCP :) | I route
StackPath, Sr. Neteng | therefore you are
_________ http://www.lewis.org/~jlewis/pgp for PGP public key_________
