July 25, 2016

What You Need To Know About The IPv4 Private Market

We have been hearing news about the imminent exhaustion of IPv4 addresses for more than a year now – but it has finally happened. The constant free supply of IPv4 addresses has been halted and IPv6 is being pitched as a solution. But is it really the solution?

Why Not IPv6

Although IPv6 provides up to 3.4 x 10³⁸ unique IP addresses, which is more than enough to satisfy the needs of the growing internet infrastructure for the future, there still are a number of problems.

For starters, the incompatibility between IPv4 and IPv6 has disturbed the transition.

Despite the generous capacity, IPv6 is still not ready to cope up with the ever growing demand for internet connections. This is because a very few number of users are actually migrating to IPv6. Replicating the IPv4 infrastructure in any manner, while developing IPv6-oriented applications, is considered to be expensive and impractical. The takeaway? Migrating to IPv6 is not enough to support growth.

The Private Markets

IPv4 selling, buying and leasing is now a growing market across various parts of the world. A large number of previously allocated IPv4 addresses are still not used or being used ineffectively.

The private market helps ensure good prices for entities to invest in renumbering IPv4 blocks while freeing up extra addresses to sell to those who need IPv4 numbers.

The trouble is, a large part of the IPv4 market is not transparent or regulated. There is no accountability or transparency. This contributes to the legal confusion when it comes to identifying what is actually being sold or bought.

For instance, IPv4 buyers wish to secure exclusive rights to these addresses. However, identifying these addresses as assets or property is not yet acceptable under the law. At the same time, American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) reiterates that IPv4 addresses are not assets. While it doesn’t have any legal implications on dealing in IPv4 addresses, it certainly is an issue that requires attention.

Because the IPv4 market has currently some issues that should be addressed, you need to be sure that you only buy or sell using highly reliable brokerage services. At IPv4 Mall, we believe that maintaining a transparent market gives all providers an equal opportunity to make financially sound decisions while develop their IPv4 based networks.

Get in touch with us to learn more about how we can help you lease, sell and buy IPv4 addresses.