On IPv6 Propaganda, IPv4 Scarcity, and a Simple Command: Stop Apologizing and Compound the Capital You Already Own

The old good days ain’t coming back—at least not for the RIR establishment that got comfortable for too long: conferences, titles, business-class travel with family, and zero consequences, while ISPs and end users carry the cost and the risk.

For two decades, RIR meetings preached IPv6 adoption as “the future.” After twenty years, the result is the proof: it did not replace IPv4 in the real economy.

This was never a technical problem. It is an incentives problem.

Inside the RIR world, “support IPv6” became a social password. Many nerds repeat it to stay in the cycle: approval, status, invitations, roles. They pretend it is leadership. It is not.

Because nerds do not decide for ISPs, cloud providers, and networks. Operators decide. And operators move only when incentives pay.

At the beginning, IPv6 promotion may have meant well. Not today. As RIRs grew, bureaucracy grew. Bureaucracy protects itself. It keeps the process, keeps the job, avoids being judged by outcomes, avoids accountability.

IPv6 preserves that world. IPv6 removes scarcity by design. No scarcity means no market. No market means no price discovery. No price discovery means no accountability.

IPv4 scarcity destroys that comfort. Scarcity forces capitalism. Markets form. Prices form. Accountability follows. Ownership becomes real.

That is why the establishment fears the IPv4 market. Because it turns IP into capital.

And capital demands decentralization. Countries do not agree, but they cannot afford to lose the Internet. A centralized registry sitting inside any single jurisdiction cannot carry the political burden of global capital and global accountability forever. When IP becomes capital, decentralization becomes inevitable. And that inevitability destroys the comfortable old life of gatekeeping, soft power, and “community” theater.

Unfortunately for them, IP is not only “technical.” IP is a service-enabling access right. Scarce access rights become priced assets. That is the whole story.

And this is why it is a once-in-a-lifetime chance—maybe the only chance.

In most industries, the scarce assets are already captured. Land is owned. Oil is controlled. Spectrum is locked.

IPv4 is the rare exception. The Internet is still young enough that the scarce resource is still moving. Many operators already hold meaningful IPv4. The market is still forming. Ownership patterns are not finished.

But the window closes.

So hear this clearly: scarcity is not your shame. Scarcity is your leverage.

IPv6 tells you to abandon leverage and return to infinite supply, where operators compete to zero again. That is not progress. That is surrender.

Stop apologizing for scarcity.

Stop acting like IPv4 value is something to hide.

Start compounding the capital you already own.

Unite as ISPs and operators. Speak plainly. Defend transferability and market reality. Normalize leasing and pricing. Build around ownership, not permission.

And understand the bigger mission: decentralization is not just good business, it is good for humanity. The Internet is the first and only tool we have for global communication that does not require anyone’s permission to work. It lets knowledge move, talent connect, and cooperation scale beyond borders. When we decentralize IP and remove single points of control, we protect the only communication infrastructure that can advance our species without needing a gatekeeper’s approval.

Yes, we get rich. But we get rich while doing something right: making the Internet harder to capture, harder to censor, harder to monopolize. Wealth is the reward. Decentralization is the achievement.

Because this is the moment.

And if you give it away, you will not get it back.