Yesterday 25th November 2019 at 15:35 (+1 UTC) RIPE NCC or Réseaux IP Européens Network Coordination Centre a Non profit run for the purpose of allocating IP Addresses and managing various web resources has officially announced and allocated their last IPv4 address according to their statement released on their Website.
Though do not be surprised, because the anticipation of running out of IPv4 addresses had always been there, infact according to RIPE NCC they were also planning for the same since 2012.
SO IS ALL HOPE LOST FOR IPV4?
IPv4 addresses have 4 bytes (32 bits) whereas IPv6 has 16 bytes (128 bits) in length.
Not quite yet. RIPE NCC along with few other Organizations focus on recovering already allocated IPv4 addresses from various auctions as well as though different techniques they use – including but not limited to legal handovers.
"These will come from organisations that have gone out of business or are closed, or from networks that return addresses they no longer need. These addresses will be allocated to our members (LIRs) according to their position on a new waiting list that is now active."
RIPE NCC ended their statement greatly emphasising on the importance of migrating to IPv6, They mention about the trade offs But the real problem here is there’s not enough IPv4 Addresses for everybody.
This is a major throwback to when the IPv4’s founder thought in the 90s Not everyone would be having a PC at their home, The point he missed was Not just PC’s that would be connected to the internet.