[HamWAN PSDR] Grants

[Stephen Kangas]

Yes, under the terms of the purchase agreement the purchase price is confidential.  However, the AMPR.org website FAQ gives a clue, in that the average IP address price in 2018 was $17 each, and was trending upward, so by the mid-2019 sale that would imply the 4 million addresses ARDC sold to Amazon might have brought in $68million; one shouldn't be surprised if there was a bulk discount off that, although considering that the IPv4 prices have been trending upward at the time, there arguably might not have been such a discount.  

It is highly debatable IMO that those addresses were sold "cheap".  The IPv4 address space has already been depleted, and there is an inexpensive alternative: IPv6.  All new networking equipment and computers for the past decade has been IPv6 ready, which means that there is expected to be early downward pressure on IPv4 addresses over the next few years.  It looks to me that ARDC may have exploited their sale at the right time.  Either way, trying to predict market pricing on nearing the end of life of IPv4 is at least challenging for anyone, and I expect lots of widely varying opinions from observers of that.

There will be a better gauge of that sale revenue when ARDC files their 990 form with the IRS this year, which must be made publicly available at least by request (although they have been posting them on their website).

Stephen W9SK

-----Original Message-----
From: PSDR <psdr-bounces at hamwan.org> On Behalf Of Andrew Dickinson
Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2020 9:35 PM
To: Puget Sound Data Ring <psdr at hamwan.org>
Subject: Re: [HamWAN PSDR] Grants

I’m curious how you know it was sold so cheaply?  I thought the terms of the price were kept confidential. 

-A

> On Jun 16, 2020, at 8:03 PM, Bryan Fields <Bryan at bryanfields.net> wrote:
> 
> On 6/16/20 8:15 PM, Cory (NQ1E) wrote:
>> The relationship between ARDC and the community was rocky even before 
>> the sale which was seen as a huge breach of trust.  However, it's 
>> clear that what was done cannot be undone, so holding a grudge is not 
>> very productive.
> 
> This is not true, a court can do many things.  This hopefully would be 
> during the penalty phase of a criminal trial.
> 
>> Especially since we regrettably lost Brian Kantor who was likely the 
>> main decision maker.
> 
> All people involved in the management of ARDC are guilty in this.  
> Losing one person doesn't do away with the unclean hands of the other board members.
> 
>> I hope that going forward ARDC can be more transparent and try to 
>> earn our trust back over time.
> 
> It would be nice, but I think the only way this will happen is to 
> remove ARDC from the 44net space.  They could have easily been open 
> with the community from day one, they actively chose not to.  ARDC has 
> operated in a very high handed matter for years.  Lets not kid 
> ourselves, Phil Karn and Brian Kantor were huge impediments to amateur 
> IP data networks for decades.  Now we have Phil running things and a quite conflicted board of directors.
> 
> The argument was "we had to move NOW and in secret to get the best 
> price for the space".  If that was the case, why was it sold so 
> cheaply?  Had they waited, the price would have kept going up.  There 
> could have been input from the community, opinions sought from states 
> attorneys, open and fair bidding for the space, and a clear plan on how to setup the non-profit foundation.
> It's going to be decades until IPv4 space is not needed, nothing 
> needed to be rushed.
> 
> You can't reform it, ARDC needs to be razed and rebuilt using trust of 
> the community.  Look at the giving they have done to date, it's not 
> benefiting any users of the space, or hams in general.  The orgs they 
> have given to are guilty of taking ill-gotten funds just the same.
> 
> And hey don't take my words for ARDC being fucked, here's the direct 
> quote from the President (Phil) in speaking with me.
> 
>> I'm more than willing to push reset and have a more constructive 
>> discussion about how to proceed, but first I do have to make two 
>> things
>> clear: 1) I don't think you have a leg to stand on to complain and 2) 
>> I would have expected a somewhat more positive response to an 
>> announcement that significant grants will now be available for many 
>> of the ham radio things that until now we've all had to fund out of 
>> our own pockets or by begging from other hams.
> 
> I'm not going to kiss his ring, but it would seem others will.
> 
> 73's
> --
> Bryan Fields
> 
> 727-409-1194 - Voice
> http://bryanfields.net
> _______________________________________________
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