[AfriNIC-rpd] Re: Proposal: Ability to Transfer IPv4 addresses from a member to any company

[Hannigan, Martin]

On 2/8/11 11:04 PM, "David Conrad" <drc at virtualized.org> wrote:

> Walu,
> 
> On Feb 7, 2011, at 3:07 AM, Walubengo J wrote:
>> just out of curiosity, was this proposal (which seems to be headed to the
>> guillotine) intended to regularize a "black" market for IPv4 resources?
> 
> Probably, although I suspect a more politic way of describing it would be as
> an attempt to avoid the proliferation of a 'black' market in IPv4 addresses.
> 
>> Does anyone have literature or experiences of underground trading of IPv4
>> resources? As in how big is the market, how does it work, who are the major
>> actors and beneficiaries? Any urls documenting this practice?
> 
> As the market is 'black', I suspect data of this sort will be hard to come by.


There is "some" data out there, but nothing solid with respect to size or
activity. We (community) have some price points, but I think that they are
artificially low. Time will tell.

There's also a question as to what an IPv4 "black market" actually is, but
I'll wait for a more proper thread to pop up to start that discussion
(rathole).

Best,

-M<