Technically, they could¹ be released – but it wouldn’t help! Even a /4 is a drop in the bucket the way allocations were accelerating up until the addresses ran

Technically, they could¹ be released – but it wouldn’t help! Even a /4 is a drop in the bucket the way allocations were accelerating up until the addresses ran out. They’d quickly run out again, and we’d be back to where we started. Except now with additional problems for everybody unable to use the new addresses. If you have to exchange old equipment anyway, it’s better to use the new equipment to simply switch to IPv6. 1. With horrible consequences, admittedly.