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The Hidden Value of IPv4 Addresses and How to Take Advantage of Rising IPv4 Address Value

Everything You Need to Know About IPv4 vs. IPv6

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When Did We Give Away the Internet?

I've been following the recent news on the World Summit on the Information Society, and it's getting really bizarre. The Wired article is one example of out of the out-of-this-world coverage on the World Summit; I heard a similar spin yesterday on a radio show that often shares material with the BBC. What king or dictator or bureaucrat has signed the document giving power over the Internet to one organization or another? Did I miss the ceremony? One laughable aspect of news reportage is that the founders and leaders of ICANN always avowed, with the utmost unction, that they were not trying to make policy decisions and were simply tinkering with technical functions on the Internet.  more

Why Do We Care About Names and Numbers?

An article based on the most recent study for the European Commission on the Policy Implications of Convergence in the Field of Naming, Numbering and Addressing written by Joe McNamee and Tiina Satuli of Political Intelligence.

"With relation to the Internet and also IP addresses, the "scarcity" is more complicated: there are not only intellectual property issues with regards to domain names, but there is also an issue of managing the integrity of the system. For any naming or numbering system to work, it is essential that the names and addresses used cannot be confused with any other -- in other words, no one system can have two end-points with the same fully qualified number or name..." more

Moving Target: Spammer Using Over 1000 Home Computers as DNS

Some individual appears to have hijacked more than a 1,000 home computers starting in late June or early July and has been installing a new Trojan Horse program on them. The Trojan allows this person to run a number of small websites on the hijacked home computers. These websites consists of only a few web pages and apparently produce income by directing sign-ups to for-pay porn websites through affiliate programs. Spam emails messages get visitors to come to the small websites.

To make it more difficult for these websites to be shut down, a single home computer is used for only 10 minutes to host a site. After 10 minutes, the IP address of the website is changed to a different home computer... more

IPv4 Pricing Through 2026 - Stability as Seller Leverage Begins to Return

After a sharp correction, the IPv4 market is showing signs of stabilization. Rising buyer activity, tightening supply expectations, and growing AI infrastructure demand are expected to support gradual price recovery through 2026, improving conditions for sellers. more

IPv4 Is Now a Sellers Market - What to Expect in 2026

After two years of falling prices, the IPv4 market has turned decisively. Surging transfer volumes, AI infrastructure demand and looming broadband expansion are tightening supply, pushing prices higher and leaving patient buyers facing a costlier reality. more

Blank Domain Names Surpass Websites in Value for the First Time, Report Finds

The domain name market recorded its strongest quarter in three years as .com sales hit a record high and investors poured capital into undeveloped web assets, signaling growing demand for premium digital real estate and scarce online identities. more

The Internet Is Fragmenting - Most of the People Who Should Notice Aren’t Looking

The internet is fragmenting across cables, routing systems and governance. Most network engineers, focused on regional operations, are missing how technical infrastructure and state power are reshaping a once interoperable network. more

Running-Code Primacy - The Patch Needed to Preserve the Internet’s Original Design

This essay argues that Internet governance has drifted from technical coordination into unaccountable institutional power, and proposes "Running-Code Primacy" as a post-RIR framework grounded in distributed validation, interoperability, and voluntary adoption rather than registry authority. more

Registry Under Siege: Investigating NRS Outreach to AFRINIC Members

As AFRINIC rebuilds after years of litigation, the Number Resource Society is urging members to sign powers of attorney, raising fears that coordinated advocacy, commercial interests and geopolitical pressures could reshape African control over critical internet resources. more

China and the Geopolitics of Africa’s 6.2 Million IPv4 Addresses

AFRINIC's fight over 6.2 million IPv4 addresses exposes how legal pressure, offshore vehicles and scarcity economics can strip Africa of leverage, turning a technical dispute into a test of sovereignty, institutional resilience and Internet governance. more

Modernizing the Registry: How LAC-2025-5 Addresses the Reality of IPv4 Scarcity

LACNIC's LAC-2025-5 proposal formalises IPv4 sub-assignments, bringing grey-market leasing into a framework, easing scarcity pressures, improving registry accuracy, and lowering barriers for smaller providers while preserving incentives to adopt IPv6, across Latin America and Caribbean. more

Mandate Laundering: From RIR Fantasy to Transition Architecture

Private internet registries have inflated narrow technical roles into quasi-sovereign authority, laundering mandate through ritual and rhetoric; a fragile system now faces legal, economic and political reckoning, prompting calls for coordinated transition urgent global reform. more

Africa Can’t Skip IPv4 on the Road to IPv6

Africa's push toward IPv6 cannot bypass IPv4 scarcity, as uneven infrastructure, market dynamics, and governance disputes raise costs, entrench inequality, and risk turning transitional address shortages into a lasting brake on digital development across regions. more

The Misinformation War Over Africa’s Internet Registry

Afrinic crisis exposes how legal pressure, proxy advocacy and owned media reshape narratives, potentially threatening global internet registry governance and shifting Africa's IP resources from public stewardship toward market commodification with broader far-reaching institutional consequences. more

The Poverty Penalty: How the RIR Model Taxes the Poor While Calling It Equality

Critics blame IPv4 markets for inequality, but registry rules long rewarded scale and imposed regressive costs. Scarcity was managed, not equalized, leaving poorer networks paying more for slower, less predictable access over time and regions. more