If IPv6 had used dots instead, then addresses like "2001.db8.1.2.3.4.beef.de" would be ambiguous between an IP address and a hostname. Perhaps they could've re

If IPv6 had used dots instead, then addresses like "2001.db8.1.2.3.4.beef.de" would be ambiguous between an IP address and a hostname. Perhaps they could've required every IPv6 address to use ".." exactly once for zero compression. Then you'd have "..2001.db8.1.2.3.4.beef.de", "2001.db8..beef.de", etc. I guess the nullary ".." could go in the middle, but that would enshrine the /64 boundary into the addressing scheme, which seems like a leaky abstraction.