Interesting, but still looks like most of this could be done in 64 bits, or ~4+ billion Internets, one for each public household. IPX had a lot of convenience

Interesting, but still looks like most of this could be done in 64 bits, or ~4+ billion Internets, one for each public household. IPX had a lot of convenience features in a similar number of bits. (80, but 24 were wasted on manufacturer, so 56 useful bits) A rotating address number will not provide privacy if the prefix attached to you is the same. Would be like saying a rotating port number would provide it, but not the case. No organization will ever need a /64 (not even close, not even wastefully-that's 18 quintillion). The slow uptake in IPv6 seems to imply that it's over-engineered and people don't care about these potential additional features. I'm a lifelong geek and can barely get interested. Network engineers are maybe .01% of the population. I guess bits are only getting cheaper in the future so why not spill them incredibly wastefully at anything we can think of, is ultimately the answer. Although it doesn't answer why 64bits was not even an option.