Re: [44net] An anniversary of a sort - 36 years

On Sep 6, 2017, at 09:56, Mike Burns <mike(a)sum.net> wrote: Hi David, You are correct to ask that question. To what end? First, there is the consideration of the health of the Internet as a whole. This is an era when IPv4 is necessary for Internet connectivity to the whole Internet, yet IPv4 is exhausted and those who need IPv4 addresses to grow the Internet are thwarted by exhaust. Many are latecomers in developing regions of the world. In this era, and in a stake-holder governed entity like the Internet, we should consider the ethics of withholding valuable assets from those who need them, while watching those assets decay to nothingness. Second there is the important question of where the money goes, and you are correct to say it would not go to Brian or any AMPR users, or even the ham community. It would definitely NOT go to ARIN, or to the government, and the legacy status is completely immaterial to this issue. I do not know how AMPR is organized, but I imagine the articles of incorporation would provide limitations on removing wealth from the organization in any fashion. But I tried to identify, in my previous email, some things that the community might see as valuable, such as paying for a K-Street lobbying firm to look in to FCC regulation changes which could benefit the ham community or funding an application or device prototype which would be helpful in demonstrating the need for changes in regulation. It might be allowable for AMPR to donate to charitable organizations, I don't know. But perhaps there is some organization or event like the Boy Scout Jamboree of the Air that could be subsidized so as to encourage new entrants to the ham radio hobby. Maybe this is an opportunity for the organization to do something visionary or to transition in some way towards newer technologies or different technologies. Probably this community has plenty of creative hackers who could find something productive to do with a quarter billion dollars. Or the opportunity could simply fade away, like the value of the 44 block. I think it's something the community should decide upon, but at this point, although IPv4 address values are at their historic peak, I believe they have not stopped rising in value, so my guess is that the right time to sell might be approaching, perhaps a year away. Some sellers with large blocks piece them out, as it is possible to sell part of a block, down to sizes of /24 which sell for roughly $4,100 each. So it is also possible to engineer a stream of income through a series of small block sales if that is more desirable to the organization. These are decisions for your community-at-large and your board in particular, so I thought it best for the community to hash it out on the mailing list to provide guidance to board members. I understand the queasy feeling of selling something that you got for free as sort of a public resource. The public IPv4 market is over six years old now, and some of the largest firms in the world are market participants. And also some of the newest and smallest. There have been over 5,000 sales of IPv4 blocks to date, and the market is growing. The decisions made by every address registry's community (ARIN, RIPE, et al) were that the benefits of using the profit incentive to bring unused addresses into productive use was worth any queasiness over the sense of unfair enrichment to those early adopters who acquired large blocks. Brian has indicated that the board is aware of the issue and considers it frequently, but the board benefits from feedback and comments from the community, so thank you David, for yours. Regards, Mike