IPv4 Brokers act as an intermediary between those who have IPv4 address blocks and those who do not. Their importance in the IPv4 marketplace and the way they create value is not obvious to several parties. Encouraging companies to view IPv4 addresses, which were allocated to them during the early periods of the internet, as valuable resources, is part of the mission of brokers. Let us see why IPv4 brokers are important in the market.

Locate IPv4 Address Blocks

Their main task involves searching for unused address blocks and bringing them to the secondary market. This raises the supply of IP address blocks, which reduces their price, as per economics. Some people feel the presence of IP brokers in the secondary market leads to increased prices, but this view overlooks the many different ways in which brokers add value to this market.

IPv4 brokers find the history of organizations that no longer exist, contact companies to locate the one who manages the network and inquire about available address ranges. Besides, they work with the employees of regional internet registries to make sure that there is historically no fraud involved in an IP address block. So, these professionals make sure that the supply of IPv4 addresses in the market is clean.

Insiders to the IPv4 Market

IPv4 address brokers give valuable details concerning price. This information is reliable than what you can derive through other ways, such as posting to your local ‘NIC’ or ‘NOG’ mailing list to check whether an offer you got is reasonable. IPv4 brokers post information about price, which goes back many years and covers numerous transactions in the IP address market. By doing this, they support those individuals in companies who should make cases for purchasing or selling the address blocks. Charts of information about sales of IPv4 addresses given by brokers appeared on several investment memos and were used to support company requests to sell these.

Transaction Facilitators

Brokers facilitate a rather complicated process of transferring these address blocks from one party to the other. From growing relationships with RIRs to making standardized documentation, they help save both time and money for purchasers. Brokers provide escrow services for free too. Several organizations trade in the IPv4 market only some times, and for them, it is not necessary to develop in-house expertise.
By performing the aforementioned functions, brokers allow companies to focus on selling or buying these addresses, and make it easier for them to expand their networks. Instead of increasing the prices of IP addresses, brokers help reduce it by increasing the supply. Most organizations do not wish to expend the limited resources they have on hand to make these capabilities, so they are grateful for the professional services that brokers provide.