Randy I'd like to continue this thread because I think it goes to the heart of the issues around exhaustion, but it is not directly relevant to this policy proposal, so bearing that in mind ...
Rival databases, based around IPv4 trading exchanges, will spring up. Why do you believe this won't happen due the vacuum created by the lack of RIR involvement?
and why would a little competition at serving us, the users of all this stuff, necessarily be a bad thing?
Because I believe we should continue with open, consensus-driven, policy based allocation mechanism, not a competitive market, for all the reasons previously given.
how much is an x.509/3779 cert and an in-addr.arpa entry worth, anyway?
I think a price of 100m euros for a /8 is not unreasonable. If we were to charge pre-RIR /8s that in order for them to get cert to join global secure routing then the reclaim/reuse solution might start be very effective. Jay