Translated from Czech:
https://blog.nic.cz/2024/01/18/odvazny-krok-ceske-vlady/
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# A bold leap by the Czech government

Yesterday, the Czech government adopted a remarkable resolution concerning the
infrastructure of the Internet, with the discussion of the "DNSSEC and IPv6
enrollment in the government". My colleague Novák discussed this in detail in
his "Krátké vlny"(=shortwaves) post, and that's why I'll focus on the
international aspect of this act for now.

The international community has been discussing IPv6's relatively slow
succession for a while now. The initial expectation was, that IPv6 will
propagate much faster with the exhaustion of free IPv4 addresses and their
increasing price on the market. Alas, we are still relatively far from a
situation, where it could be feasible to only offer internet services only over
the IPv6 protocol. Service and connectivity providers are thus forced to
maintain two different network protocols with all the drawbacks stemming from
that, and only the speculators(scalpers) selling or renting the IPv4 addresses.
The rising price of IPv4 addresses unfortunately attracted new players into
the technical community surrounding the regional registrars, who at their
hearts have different interests than the smooth operation of internet
infrastructure. IPv4 addresses are in fact even taken as spoils of armed
conflicts due to their price.

I dare to say, that this time, the free market was far from solving this
conflict and therefore I consider the interest of state administrations in this
matter to me useful. Despite this, until yesterday, none of these
administrations on the European continent has decided for such a decisive step,
like announcing the end-of-support date for IPv4, like the one agreed upon
yesterday by the Czech government. The date is set to the highly symbolical 6th
of June, 2032, 20 years anniversary of the "World IPv6 day".

Obviously, I'm not such an optimist as to think this decision will alone mean
the total end of IPv4 in the entire World. Many more actors will have to join
this cause, be it private or government entities. Furthermore, the date may of
course be later revised. Nevertheless, a declaration of a clear deadline may
mean, that others will join. By the way, this decision has already sparked
discussion on the RIPE NCC forums.

As always, anyone coming with something new may get either an avalanche of
support or be left behind alone. But Czechia has clearly set a date for itself,
and in this situation, it would by unwise for anybody buying new equipment not
to account for the IPv6 protocol, is it may come tho bite them back in the
future. As such, it is a clear signal for all internet players to take IPv6
more seriously.

It is imperative for this decision not to remain a unique one and for the Czech
Republic to cooperate on the European, and later possibly on the global level.
Nevertheless, the EU has dared to adopt a much more audacious set of goals. So,
please, allow me to thank the Czech government for this brave, ambitious, but
also a rational step. I very much wish for this to be the "first domino to
fall" in the ensuing avalanche of IPv6 adoption, and I wish for the date 17th
of January, 2024 to once be written into the history book of the Internet.

Good luck, IPv6!