Regional Registries

The Openness Alibi: How the RIR System Closed the Door on Its Own Legitimacy

Lu Heng argues that increasingly restrictive election and participation rules across the five Regional Internet Registries undermine the legitimacy of their governance model, proposing decentralized number coordination as an alternative to centralized institutional authority.

More Than 80% of AfriNIC Addresses Detected Outside Africa Linked to a Single Company

New measurements link Cloud Innovation to 81% of AfriNIC IPv4 addresses detected outside Africa, raising questions about regional allocation policies, contractual obligations and the evidence needed to establish compliance.

AFRINIC, Member Rights and Executive Interference

AFRINIC's effort to remove Cloud Innovation from its company register has intensified a dispute over court orders, membership rights, executive authority, and the accountability of Internet number registry administrators.

The February Case That Could End Africa’s Internet Registry

Cloud Innovation's petition to dissolve AFRINIC returns to Mauritius's Supreme Court in 2027, raising questions about the registry's governance, contested membership rights, legal costs and continuity of Internet address services across Africa.

Who Still Governs Africa’s Internet Resources?

Cloud Innovation's reappearance in AFRINIC's Mauritian membership register raises questions about governance, judicial oversight and institutional independence. The author calls for transparent records, scrutiny of conflicts of interest and an orderly end to receivership.

The TLD Fight Is On: 1,615 Applications, and One Question Nobody Is Asking

ICANN's 2026 new gTLD round attracted 1,615 applications, with competition concentrated on contested extensions. Strong registration growth contrasts with weak renewal rates, raising questions about long-term demand and commercial viability.

15th Registration Operations Workshop, September 29, 2026, 13:00 - 17:00 UTC

The 15th Registration Operations Workshop convenes domain name and DNS professionals September 29 for technical sessions on mTLS, RPKI, DNS resilience, delegations, DNSSEC, registrar concentration, dispute proceedings and alternative naming systems.

IPv4 Has Two Clocks: Why Acquisition and Deployment Don’t Move at the Same Speed

IPv4's fixed supply masks a crucial mismatch: addresses can be acquired quickly but deployed only gradually. After 2025's price declines, returns increasingly depend on lease rates, absorption speed and the operator's ability to monetise inventory.

AFRINIC’s Constitution Is Africa’s Next Internet Stress Test

AFRINIC's proposed Constitution offers Africa's troubled internet registry a chance to turn years of litigation, disputed elections and institutional paralysis into durable governance, provided reforms constrain external capture, internal concentration and administrative overreach alike.

National Internet Registries: Gatekeeper or Enabler?

National Internet Registries were created to give countries greater control over internet number resources. Yet where they add opacity and restrict transfers, they can trap scarce IPv4 capacity, slowing growth instead of strengthening digital resilience.

Continuity Is Not Legitimacy: Why Internet Institutions Need a Governance Stress Test

Internet institutions can remain operational while losing the legitimacy that sustains their authority. A proposed governance stress test distinguishes continuity from legitimacy, helping expose capture, substitution, and accountability failures before institutional crises become irreversible realities.

The Multi-Stakeholder Mirage: How Internet Governance Turned Attendance Into Mandate

Internet multi-stakeholder governance mistakes participation for legitimacy, granting policy processes implied authority without public authorization. As IPv4 becomes capital, operator accountability, not attendance, should define binding decision-making and institutional legitimacy instead of consensus.

IPv4 Pricing Through 2026 - Stability as Seller Leverage Begins to Return

After a sharp correction, the IPv4 market is showing signs of stabilization. Rising buyer activity, tightening supply expectations, and growing AI infrastructure demand are expected to support gradual price recovery through 2026, improving conditions for sellers.

How the AI Computing Paradigm Is Deconstructing Internet Governance

As AI giants build vertically integrated, compute-centric networks, they are bypassing DNS, reshaping routing, and concentrating infrastructure power, placing decades-old internet governance institutions under mounting pressure and raising the prospect of a fragmented, AI-driven Splinternet.

The Cavalry Has Finally Arrived: ICANN Enters the Courtroom to Defend the RIR System

ICANN's court intervention in AFRINIC's winding-up case widens a local corporate dispute into a global Internet governance test, exposing weaknesses in RIR protections and strengthening calls for ICP-2 reforms to safeguard registry continuity.

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