Fears about IP address exhaustion are overblown. X-day is the day that IP address scarcity begins to become a problem, not the day that the intertubes burst an

Fears about IP address exhaustion are overblown. X-day is the day that IP address scarcity begins to become a problem, not the day that the intertubes burst and flood everyone's basement. We appear to be headed for an IP shortage because IP addresses are presently distributed by a central authority, "to each according to his need". IANA allocation policies undercut the fair market value of IP addresses, so the free market that could exist for them currently doesn't. But once IANA stops handing them out, there's nothing keeping it from forming.