[rpd] [Last Call] Draft Policy Proposal - Hierarchical Names for New AS-SETs (AFPUB-2026-ASN-001-DRAFT02)

[Mphoentle Mokheseng]

Dear Hendrik,

I think you are confusing the completeness of a check with the breadth of the assurance it provides.

The proposal may fully enforce one local rule: a newly created AFRINIC AS-SET must begin with an ASN and be authorised at creation. Calling that assurance “limited” does not mean the check is defective. It means the check proves only that specific fact, at that specific point in time, inside that specific database.

I am not adding correctness, operational safety, or enduring authority to the draft. I am preventing those broader outcomes from being smuggled into its justification.

The Impact Assessment and supporters have repeatedly invoked reduced global collisions, protection against squatting, safer filter generation, and fewer resolver-related misconfigurations. If those broader benefits are being used to justify mandatory policy, then it is entirely proper to test whether the proposal actually delivers them. You cannot rely on the wider ecosystem claim when advocating adoption, then retreat to “creation-time naming only” when that claim is challenged.

The position is therefore straightforward:

If DRAFT02 provides only local creation-time attribution, then the Impact Assessment and advocacy around it should be narrowed to that claim.

If it is intended to provide wider routing or global namespace protection, then those effects and dependencies must be demonstrated.

Tshepo did not concede that the proposal solves the wider problem. He acknowledged a narrow improvement while questioning the larger claims attached to it. That is consistent, not contradictory.

A minimum common rule should be precise about what it guarantees and modest about what it does not. Until the policy text, Impact Assessment, and claimed benefits are aligned, I remain opposed to the proposal as written.

Regards,

Mphoentle

Disclaimer This email and the information contained herein are Advtech Ltd confidential and are protected by law. Please navigate to our website for more information https://www.groupadvtech.com. Use of this information or this email by any person for any purposes other than that for which it is intended is prohibited and may result in civil and/or criminal liability. This email is not to be shared with any 3rd parties not included within this email, without the written consent of its Author. If you have received this message in error, please notify Advtech immediately, telephone number +27 11 676 8000. Advtech leads the private sector in the fields of education and resourcing, contributing meaningfully towards the sustainable development of human capacity in South Africa.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/rpd/attachments/20260730/e312ed9d/attachment-0001.html>