A central authority can give each of us a chunk of a 128-bit address space and then we can route peer to peer based on shortest paths. Wait...
Did you know you're allowed to own an IP address block without making it publicly routable? They will have to periodically call you to make sure you're still using it, but it's otherwise allowed.
How much does a /24 go for these days anyway...
about $100/month or $3000 forever, but that's not important right now - if you're making a new network, use ipv6 only.