3 ms·

This just cements the IPv4 incumbents as winners.

• tzs 5y ago
  I think you might be overlooking network effects (pun intended). Yes, the current incumbents will buy up all the IPv4 addresses they can before trading stops. That will cement them as the permanent winners for IPv4 services. But with IPv4 addresses no longer tradable, hosting companies and ISPs will have no choice but to adopt IPv6 if they want to grow. New hosting companies and ISPs will be IPv6-only. I'd expect at that point most large mobile networks, which are largely IPv6 already with IPv6 compatibility bolted on so customers can reach IPv4-only sites, to go IPv6-only. There will be legacy applications that still need a real IPv4 address on the server side. The current incumbents will end up cemented as the winners of that service.
  • 2fastpost 5y ago
    You assume new entrants or smaller entities would have a fighting chance in this scenario. They would not. The incumbents would become king makers. They would decide which services would be allowed on the IPv4 Internet, which would be the only Internet, and which services would be allowed to prosper. The incumbents would either acquire all successful startups and smaller companies or clone their services. New entrants would wither on the wine on this obscure IPv6-only network that hardly anybody knows about or is able to access. This would also kill off IPv6 completely. The incumbents would have a collective interest in maintaining and propping up their position. IPv6 would be a threat to this, so it would be given the axe. This isn’t some far out fantasy either. This is how mobile phone services worked during the SMS era before the Internet was a thing.