Openness Alibi
Lu Heng examines the RIR system’s openness defence, its growing barriers to leadership, and why decentralisation removes the prize of institutional capture.
The Notes of Lu Heng
Who decides the future of the Internet?
Who gave the Internet’s recordkeepers the power to govern it? These Notes follow that question from everyday analogies to a different design for the network.
New to IP addresses and Internet governance? Start with the beginner’s guide
Start with three Notes
New here? Start with these three.
Understand the problem. Question the mandate. Explore a way out.
The problem, in everyday terms
If the water company claimed to own your house, would you accept it? An accessible way into registry power and the right to leave.
Read the Note“Monopoly does not create sovereignty.”
Who gave them the mandate?
A meeting room cannot stand in for a continent. Examine the difference between participating and representing.
Read the Note“No one speaks for a continent.”
What should replace it?
A concrete statement of rights: keep networks running, keep records accurate, and make it possible to change registry.
Read the Note“Without exit, service becomes power.”
Follow one question
Six questions, one argument
Each Note answers one of these questions. They all lead to the same place: a record that stays reliable, kept by an institution that can always be replaced.
“Because a ledger is most trustworthy in the hands of those who remember that they did not create the world it records.”Note 63 Who holds the power?
Representation, authority and the claims made in the name of community.
In the exhibitionHall 5 · Land Without Us
“The Internet is the first and only tool we have for global communication that does not require anyone’s permission to work.”Note 29 Who controls the value?
IP addresses, markets and the difference between owning and asking permission.
In the exhibitionHall 1 · Where the Land Turns
“The Internet works because no one owns it.”Note 2 How should the Internet work?
Names, numbers, protocols and decentralized coordination.
In the exhibitionHall 3 · A City in Use
“Every system eventually reaches a moment when it must either adapt to reality or attempt to freeze itself in place.”Note 25 What happens when a registry fails?
Portability, operational continuity and the right to leave.
In the exhibitionHall 5 · The Mountain Stays, Weather Passes
“Reality does not need to be invented. It only needs to be described.”Note 36 How do the ideas become real?
The businesses, institutions and practical choices behind the argument.
In the exhibitionHall 2 · When Things Become Shapes
“Most conflicts persist because participants mix these layers.”Note 20 Beyond Internet governance
Reality, civilization, time and the wider worldview.
In the exhibitionHall 2 · Inside, Outside
Read in order
Explore the complete collection
Follow a question, find a particular Note, or read how the argument develops.
All subjects
77 Notes found · Page 1 / 7
AFRINIC, Member Rights and Executive Interference
An administrator may maintain the record. It must not acquire the final power to decide whose rights survive.
Forced Representation: RIPE NCC, “Chinese Disinformation,” and the Fiction of an Inclusive Community
I challenged a voting rule, not on behalf of China. A community cannot claim my participation as a mandate while using my nationality to dismiss my objection.
Need Base and Pre-Approval — The RIR Veto over IPv4 Transfers
Should an operator need its recordkeeper’s permission to invest?
The Multi-Stakeholder Mirage --How the Multi-Stakeholder Model Turned Attendance Into Mandate
When did attendance start to count as a mandate?
The Bill of Rights of Uniqueness Coordination
Which rights keep networks running, records accurate, and exit real?
The Policy Mirror
What does a policy manual confess about what an institution thinks it is?
How AFRINIC's 2026 Rules Turn the Registry from Ledger into Capital Control
The Registry Continuity Fallacy — Protect the Ledger, Not the Gatekeeper
What must survive an institution’s failure: the ledger, or the gatekeeper?
The Stability Fallacy in the RIR Argument
Whose stability is at stake: the institution’s, or the networks people actually use?
On LARUS One — The Economics of Network Identity, Customer Continuity, and Provider Revenue
What would it cost to change the number everyone recognises you by?
When the Water Company Says Your House Belongs to It
If the water company claimed your house, would you accept it?
On Why i.LEASE Exists — and Why the Broker Question Is Really a Registry-Risk Question
Which broker can carry the risk when the registry stops behaving like a filing office?
Before We Explain the World
The same thinking, hung on the walls
Eleven walls of the photography exhibition read from these Notes, and three carry Lu Heng’s own words from interviews. The photographs and the arguments come from the same twenty years.
I went to the Netherlands on my own while I was still in high school.Hall 1 · Leaving the KnownOn the RoadLu Heng
“I started my business at a very young age, selling game cards and providing connectivity to people.”Hall 1 · Leaving the KnownA World from One SeatLu Heng- “The Internet is the first and only tool we have for global communication that does not require anyone’s permission to work.”Hall 1 · Leaving the KnownWhere the Land TurnsNote 29
- “Most conflicts persist because participants mix these layers.”Hall 2 · Where We Look FromInside, OutsideNote 20
“I did not begin from opposition. I began from participation.”Hall 2 · Where We Look FromThrough GlassNote 43- “Reality does not need to be invented. It only needs to be described.”Hall 2 · Where We Look FromWhen Things Become ShapesNote 36
- “The Internet works because no one owns it.”Hall 3 · The World We BuildA City in UseNote 2
“Packets do not care who you are.”Hall 4 · Meeting Other LivesThey Look BackNote 31
“Participation should not depend on who can afford flights and hotels.”Hall 4 · Meeting Other LivesRoom for Other LivesNote 11- “Because a ledger is most trustworthy in the hands of those who remember that they did not create the world it records.”Hall 5 · The Scale of TimeLand Without UsNote 63
- “Every system eventually reaches a moment when it must either adapt to reality or attempt to freeze itself in place.”Hall 5 · The Scale of TimeThe Mountain Stays, Weather PassesNote 25
Note 27 asks a question about the far future: once efficiency no longer needs people to drive it, what does a human life still contain?Hall 5 · The Scale of TimeWhen Light Comes ApartNote 27
“I’m just an internet nerd and advocate for what I believe would be better for humanity.”Hall 6 · Life ItselfLight Close ByLu Heng
Hall 6 · Life ItselfWater Close ByNote 8
About the Notes
Why these Notes exist
Over the past years, I have been directly involved in disputes, policy processes, and structural failures across Regional Internet Registries (RIRs), including all five of them. What I write here is not theoretical commentary; it is drawn from first-hand exposure to how the Internet’s core resources are actually governed, misgoverned, priced, and controlled.
Written from inside the registry system, not as a commentator. Lu Heng explains who the Notes are for and why they are deliberately uncomfortable.
Read the introduction