How to acquire 1,024 public IPv4 addresses which are worth $60K for $500 | Hacker News Reader

How to acquire 1,024 public IPv4 addresses which are worth $60K for $500

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69 pointsmkmk13 comments

This is the kind of thing that stops working once people know about it. I expect the waitlist to grow out of control if it hasn't already.

Also, I hope IPv4 addresses are worth almost nothing five years from now.

I don't see a scenario where this is the case except if we assume 5G take over of the Internet?

The idea is higher IPv4 prices -> faster IPv6 adoption -> ~90% IPv6 adoption -> IPv4 prices go down.

I think IPv4 pricing going up will be the financial incentive for IPv6 adoption, however, I think IPv4 will hold their value forever and continue to go up in value in the same way new TLDs didn't erode the value of .com.

I'm surprised it only took 3 months.

I have a /24 I registered in the early 90's. It's a "legacy" block, predating ARIN, and I pay no fees. I currently use it for my home lab.

I'm not, at least in the ARIN region. ARIN has gotten more picky about what transfers they allow so selling blocks to an ARIN member is more difficult. I figure RIPE will follow soon, though I hope the screeching owls on the Address Policy list who want to slam the door after the horse burned down the barn, by banning all transfers, lose out.

A former coworker is, for some reason, incredibly proud of our medium-sized medical group having a legacy block. He takes such a proprietary interest that he became a former coworker when he quit, among other reasons, after our board voted to give a /23 to another group in our industry.

I'm not quite old enough to have been able to get a free /24 with no recurring fees but I'll happily use the provider-independent /24 I got in the RIPE area some years ago. Only costs $150/year to my sponsoring LIR and they give me a /44 of IPv6 addresses included.

That's a strange story about your former coworker. Was he responsible for registering the /23 block himself or something? I worked at several companies with /16's, back in the 90's. It was pretty common back then.

I know several folks with their own /24's. We were all on the early Internet ("early" meaning before 1995 or so.)

> We were all on the early Internet ("early" meaning before 1995 or so.)

This is basically why he had such a big interest in it. He was old enough to have been around to get a subnet but either didn't or lost it or something (he never said) and had worked for our employer forever. He seemed to be very "Internet hipster" about it. One of his big claims to fame was operating a FidoNet BBS that Clifford Stoll logged into.

We weren't exactly sad to see him go but it really cemented for me how wrapped up some people get in things. (We also have a four-digit ASN and he loved being snide about sites with six-digit ASNs, like I have.)

Oh yeah, I also remember the BBS days. I met many interesting and unusual folks on them, most of which I've lost touch with.

Similarly, RIPE offers a /24 to each member (€1400/yr, though there's the possibility of a partial annual rebate).

The waiting list is currently full: https://www.ripe.net/manage-ips-and-asns/ipv4/ipv4-waiting-l...

Thanks for sharing! If anyone has any questions lmk

Is there a waiting period before you can transfer to another org or RIR?

Yes, - 5 years. The only exception would be if the business was acquired https://www.arin.net/resources/guide/ipv4/waiting_list/ https://www.arin.net/participate/policy/nrpm/#8-2-mergers-ac...

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