[rpd] Inter-RIR Resource

[Owen DeLong]

> On Nov 27, 2018, at 13:53 , JORDI PALET MARTINEZ via RPD <rpd at afrinic.net> wrote:
> 
> Somebody responded me in private with some hints to consider on this talk. I've been authorized to introduce those in the list but not mention who made the comments, because their corporate policy doesn't allow them to talk in public.
> 
> 1) IPv6 adoption has no correlation with IPv4 availability or prices. In a dual stack world, they are complementary goods, not substitutes.
> 2) RIPE became a net importer of addresses when it switched from intra-rir to inter-rir.

Yes… So far, the only net Exporter to the best of my knowledge is ARIN.

> 3) Many AFRINIC address holders are waiting for inter-rir before they consider selling.  Therefore, those ranges remain unavailable.

This is difficult to validate or disprove. Could be true, but if it is, I think it’s actually an argument against the policy, as it indicates that the resource holders in question are looking to export those resources off out of the region, or, they think that the AfriNIC market is somehow depressed relative to global pricing and they expect to get a higher price from an off-continent bidder. Either way, it strikes me as an argument that this policy might be premature. I’m not sure I buy said argument, but, if I do, it doesn’t mean what the commenter intended, iMHO.

> 4) Markets impose efficiency on resource consumption.  The bigger and more transparent the market, the more efficient.

This is a tautology often trotted out by economists. If you look closely at the economists definition of efficiency, you’ll see that it’s carefully couched in such terms as to indicate that the behaviors of a market are the definition of the term efficiency, so, markets are inherently efficient because efficiency itself is defined by market behaviors.

In reality, markets do not necessarily achieve efficient distribution of resources by any other, more traditional meaning of the term efficiency.

> 5) Prices will likely rise in the near term. Restrictions on access to AFRINIC members will likely cost the more, either now or later.

Prices are rising around the world. This will likely continue so long as IPv4 is seen as a necessity (necessary evil?) for operations.

The good news is that IPv6 is still moving towards critical mass and I believe that the day when IPv4 is no longer critical to most eyeballs is coming sooner than most people think.

Owen