Obviously IPv4 addresses are useful, because people are offering money for them. My understanding of what they are used for, is to support clients behind NAT. B

Obviously IPv4 addresses are useful, because people are offering money for them. My understanding of what they are used for, is to support clients behind NAT. But there could be some further application that I am not aware of. If IPv4 addresses are useful to Microsoft or Amazon, then perhaps they can be useful to the general public, in some way. Indeed, MIT already provides IPv4 hosting to anyone who physically shows up at their campus. Maybe MIT could grant their IP addresses to a non-profit that would find a way to improve society. It's debatable what universities should be doing. I've talked about this with several people who work in grant writing, and administration of well respected universities. What I have been told, is that it is generally the job of universities to educate certain people, with the end goal of improving society, and the world. And that is what justifies universities hand picking who they educate; affirmative action. So, picking out students from poor and marginalized communities, and targeting them for education, would arguably do more good for society as a whole. Universities played a part in ending slavery, by demonstrating that black people could indeed compete with white people intellectually. And that this mission is explicitly laid out in the charters of many universities. But, I'm aware of how indirect that is. Not everyone will agree. And certainly not all, if not most universities are like this. I think a lot of universities are just educational and research facilities.