Going by the global IPv4 address depletion, which has remained an issue for growing organizations that are not ready for the switch to IPv6, a United Kingdom-based firm, Heficed has decided to launch a new platform – a marketplace for IPv4 addresses.
The new marketplace, according to the IP address-oriented company, will empower telcos and other IPv4 registrants, with pools of unused addresses to monetize them at a period where a single IPv4 address costs around $20, and some organizations are in control of thousands of these, often unused.
“Our new platform will offer a transparent way of monetizing and leasing IP addresses. IP registrants do get charged a commission fee, but it is always visible what percentage goes to them, and what part of the price is the commission. Those listing their resources are only charged when a transaction is successful,” said Vincentas Grinius, CEO of Heficed.
Vincentas disclosed that what the new platform does is let businesses list their IPv4 address, while lessees can easily choose the needed IPv4 addresses and lease them in a simplified and secure way.
Currently, the Internet is experiencing IPv4 address shortages. Most of the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs), the entities governing IP address allocation processes in different continents, have exhausted their pools of IPv4s to allocate.
IPv4 addresses, originally a free resource, have become a commodity and a strategic asset for businesses because a single IPv4 address in the second-hand market now costs around twenty dollars. However, the market is hardly regulated and scattered throughout countless IP address brokers, leading to murky practices and pricing.