Antonis Chariton via address-policy-wg wrote on 30/10/2025 16:04:
Although I’m not an expert in this area I’d also like to voice my agreement with Max’ point. Due to the nature of legacy IPv4 and ASes there’s no requirement for registration or notification of an RIR as far as I understand. That said, any sale can be conducted with a single contract between two parties and nobody is required to know about it.
this is technically correct, but no more than that. If you want DNS or route objects, the registered holder of the address space needs to engage with the RIPE NCC. Obviously an original registered holder could deal with this for a successor, or any level downstream, but this is honestly a nuisance for them.
As far as I see it, these holders will face the following dilemma: RIPE IRR + RPKI or lower membership fees and retaining this status / flexibility. I think for most organizations the choice will be clear and they’ll choose the second, with the database slowly drifting away from the truth and fewer spaces being covered by ROAs. If someone has or buys an IPv4 /16 they’ll probably choose to opt-out of higher membership fees and will be fine losing a ROA or using RADB / ALTDB.
And DNS, and the ability to issue number resource LOAs.
This will also affect IXPs and other heavy users of IRR as more members / customers will require something in addition to RIPE’s database.
It won't affect IXPs or other organisations which require accurate IRR registration. It will affect the users of the address space if they can't properly route their addresses. If organisations want to self-harm, that's an issue for them, not an IXP. Nick