Lu Heng is the founder and CEO of LARUS, a company focused on IPv4 infrastructure and first-party address leasing. His work centers on the economic and legal structure of Internet number resources, particularly the implications of IPv4 scarcity and the structural risks that arise when high-value network assets are administered by institutions with limited liability.
He is also the founder of i.lease, an IPv4 marketplace platform, the LARUS Foundation, and the operator of the .help top-level domain registry. Heng has been actively involved in global discussions on Internet governance, registry stability, and the long-term alignment between routing reality and registry authority.
Through his writing and public commentary, he examines the intersection of Internet infrastructure, property rights, and governance systems. His essays and notes are published on his personal site, heng.lu.
Regional internet registries, once coordinators of technical scarcity, now effectively cap liability at $100 while retaining control over national numbering systems, shifting risk to states and entrenching a governance model critics argue today inverts sovereignty. more
Regional Internet registries, built for coordination, now sit atop scarce IPv4 assets while bearing little liability, suppressing capitalization and imposing "double extraction" that weakens operators, distorts markets and threatens the stability of global internet uniqueness. more
Internet number resources, once clerical entries, now underpin real economic value, exposing a mismatch between registry power and accountability, while misplaced political narratives obscure the case for decentralised, operator-led control. more
IPv4 scarcity turned regional internet registries from clerks into gatekeepers of a valuable resource. Yet liability caps remain trivial, leaving powerful institutions with little accountability and incentives for conflict and structural breakdown ahead. more