Hello, Generally speaking I am happy with RIPE so please consider this only as a feedback, not as a complaint. I don't think that some bad stats necessarily warrant the total discontinuation of this service. Maybe RIPE should not act as a company that discontinues a product that is not popular. Maybe if the service would be truly enhanced, it would have more users. Additionally we can't know for sure where things will go in the future. Up until recently RIPE members were getting one /22 upon signup. As this is now gone, some LIRs might need to start purchasing. I might be very wrong but I feel that RIPE should have involved a lot more from the very start in most regards associated with this problem (cleaning up the unfair LIRs, some supervision, escrow etc) so that any exchange is done in a protected/vetted environment for it's members. Again, apologies if I don't comprehend the scale of the implications of such expectations. I don't know what resources it would require to be enhanced but when it comes to such an expensive resource as IPv4 (which is only going to get even more expensive as the time passes by), we would very much want some RIPE services in this regard for a little bit more peace of mind. So as a member we "vote" to keep this service either in the current form or in an enhanced one. Kind regards! On 10/06/2020 13:59, Felipe Victolla Silveira wrote:
Dear members,
In my update at RIPE 80[1], I mentioned that we would like to decommission the IPv4 Transfer Listing Service unless there there were strong objections. So far, we have heard no requests to keep the service.
In case anyone is unfamiliar with this, the listing service allows members to offer/request IPv4 prefixes for transfer: https://www.ripe.net/manage-ips-and-asns/resource-transfers-and-mergers/list...
While there are currently 681,000 IPv4 addresses "offered" on the listing service, when we attempted to match LIRs that had used the service with those that went on to make a transfer, we couldn't find much of a correlation. Of the 1,969 LIRs that transferred resources in our service region last year, only 76 had posted on the listing service and it's not clear whether the service actually connected the offering/receiving parties for these cases.
As the listing service is reaching the end of its lifespan, a full reimplementation would be needed to continue supporting it. Given that the listing service does not appear to be adding much in terms of value, spending development time on this does seem like a good use of members' funds.
We are therefore planning to discontinue the IPv4 Transfer Listing Service on 22 June. If you have strong objections to this, please let us know or share feedback on members-discuss.
Regards
Felipe Victolla Silveira Chief Operations Officer RIPE NCC
[1] RIPE NCC Operational Update: https://ripe80.ripe.net/wp-content/uploads/presentations/28-Operational-Upda...