RE: Kremen's Buddy?

["Daniel Golding" <dgolding () tier1research com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-nanog () merit edu [mailto:owner-nanog () merit edu] On Behalf Of
> Adi Linden
>
> Here is a very good point of why ip space should not be a property traded
> on an open market. To me ip space is like a house number or a telephone
> number. A resource required and useable for a presence on the global
> internet only. The current process of allocating ip space based on need
> makes perfect sense. In order to assess the need, certain aspects of a
> network have to be disclosed to ARIN, that makes perfect sense as well.
>
> I'd hate to see an open market place for ip space. The ability to afford
> ip space based on wealth rather then technical merit makes little sense
> to me.

"From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs" could
be replaced with "From each according to the ARIN fee schedule, to each
according to our impossible to decipher allocation templates". Marx would be
proud! Centrally managed economic systems seem so wonderful on paper -
that's why so many otherwise very smart people have championed the idea.
Real world experience, on the other hand, has shown that capitalism is the
worst possible method for distributing resources - except for all the other
methods, which are even worse. 

Address trading prevents hording, which we have now. And its not just a
little hording, either - Look at Geoff Huston's reports too see how much of
the total IPv4 space is wasted. We economically incent people to waste space
and not turn it back in. If that IP space was fungible, people would sell
it, and more addresses would be available. The sorts of controls we have in
place today tend to raise, rather than lower prices - again, history has
shown this - they encourage scarcity and hoarding. 

And, if people have noticed, the Internet is what we use to make money,
these days - at least, the folks on this list.

My opinion is that ARIN should use some of its not inconsiderable warchest
and hire some economists to do some real work on modalities for address
distribution (i.e. give some grants). Aside from the practical utility, some
real science around this topic would be of great intellectual benefit.

- Daniel Golding