During the dot com boom, I was working in the software distribution world. At the time the world was worried about running out of IP addresses. I was irritated by this as IPv61 had been around for quite some time and I didn’t understand why more people weren’t using it. All of the then current operating systems supported it, so….
I put a plan together to build a second internet using IPv6. My idea was to build a “virtual backbone” using some existing networking and firing up some dark fiber. I wanted to partner with local cable companies to run the “last mile” and deal with managing customers. We were going to use a federated Identity Management system so you could tell who was who. The idea was fleshed out to bring in other players to incentive-ize adoption and expansion.
Taking advantage of the features in IPv6 we could use QOS to stream TV and Audio, plus keep all traffic secure using it’s built in encryption, IPSec. And relieve the IPv4 IP issues.
It was good enough to warrant a “shark tank” like trip to Charlotte, NC. An investor there had several VC connections for whom he sourced ideas. His usual process was a 2 1/2 hour lunch with 7 – 10 VC’s where ideas were given 15 minutes to make their pitch. For me, he invited his VC’s and we had a 3 hour dinner where I was the only pitch. By the end, I was offered $5M to do a test in a local market.
Within 1 week of that meeting, the dot com bubble popped and No one wanted anything to do with the idea.
I also pitched the idea that we could set up our own Master DNS server to offer more domains than were currently available. At the time the .com domain selling business was 100’s of millions of dollars per year. We were going to do all the fun ones. .mail, .xxx, .mall, .person, .family, etc. etc. Setting your own DNS is pretty trivial and Google and Cloudflare are late to the party IMHO.
1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6
