IPv8 Proposed to Extend IPv4 and Solve Address Exhaustion. Will It Really Matter?

With IPv6 at 50% adoption and the proposal flagged as AI-generated, experts doubt the 64-bit "upgrade" will go anywhere

IPv4 address allocation officially ended in 2011, and telecommunications companies have adapted to the shortage by using technologies such as NAT and CGNAT. Those who need IPv4 addresses may have to lease or purchase them. Because of the scarcity, there’s a market for buying, selling, and leasing IPv4 addresses with an estimated transfer market of around $1.2 billion, according to Quantum Run.

Before IPv4 addresses ran out, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) allocated them without charge. Universities and large tech companies were given large blocks of IPv4 addresses at no cost. Today, there’s a large market for buying and selling IPv4 addresses, while tech companies use NAT to make the most of the limited supply.

Is IPv8 the Solution?

Lately, a new proposal was forwarded to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to address the scarcity of IPv4 addresses. Although the IETF does not control or monitor the Internet, the organization “makes voluntary standards that are often adopted by Internet users, network operators, and equipment vendors, and it thus helps shape the trajectory of the development of the Internet,” according to its official website.

The proposal submitted to the IETF introduces IPv8 as a way to reduce scarcity. The proposal is straightforward: it would extend IPv4 from the current 32-bit address to a 64-bit address.

The proposal claims to work seamlessly with current IPv4 technology. The first four numbers would identify the Autonomous System Number, while the last four would identify the user.

Comparing IPv6 to IPv8

The proponents of IPv8 see the failure of IPv6 as the reason for the proposal:

“IPv6 [RFC8200] was developed to address exhaustion. After 25 years of standardization and deployment effort, IPv6 carries a minority of global internet traffic. The dual-stack transition model -- requiring every device, application, and network to simultaneously support both protocols -- proved commercially unacceptable.”

Although IPv6 is more complex than IPv8, it offers a 128-bit address space, which is much larger than both IPv4 and the proposed IPv8. IPv6 can provide about 340 undecillion addresses, while IPv8 would offer about 18.4 quintillion addresses.

IPv6 is already widely adopted and used worldwide. As of March 28, 2026, Google’s monitoring indicates that 50.10% of users access Google through IPv6.

A Proposal and a Possible AI-Generated Document

IPv8 is still a proposal. It is still in its early stages and would require extensive review as experts and authorities worldwide evaluate its advantages and disadvantages. It could take years or even decades for IPv8 to gain approval and adoption because of the testing and improvements it would require.

It’s also a document drafted through AI. According to Cybernews, a GPTZero scan flagged large parts of the document as 100% AI-generated and the overall document as possibly 76% AI-generated. Tech experts have also questioned the proposal due to several technical inconsistencies in the document.

In conclusion, the proposed IPv8 will most likely not see the light of day in terms of actual implementation. Technical inconsistencies and the increasing adoption of IPv6 have made the proposal moot.