> IPv6 can get rid of NAT which is one of the most annoying hurdles.
Right.
> It unlocks the type of use case where technical people can host something from home for fun, although many can’t access it because both parties need ipv6.
At this point, that's an obstacle, but at some future point hopefully IPv6 will hit a critical mass and network effects will take off because there'll be enough stuff that _doesn't work without IPv6_, so customers will demand it.
> if you set your sights higher and want to build true p2p apps for non-techies
Definitely.
Restoring the universal endpoint-to-endpoint connectivity on the IP network overcomes a _major hurdle_, a hurdle that's so big and longstanding that people have come to just assume its existence and fear and removal… but it certainly doesn't solve all the problems.
> or if you want “roaming” servers (say an FTP server on your laptop)
> - Opening up ports in both a residential router and sometimes the OS or 3p firewall. Most people don’t know what a port is.
I mean, UPnP makes big improvements in this area, but a lot of devices stupidly don't handle it, or block it for alleged security reasons. Frustrating.
> - DNS & certs which require a domain name and a fixed connection (if the peer moves around across networks, eg a laptop or phone, DNS is not responsive enough)
There's no real reason why TLS clients _must_ only trust certs when they see that the CN or SAN matches the _domain name_ through which they looked up the IP address. I think that with a better issuing infrastructure and UX, a TOFU-based (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trust_on_first_use) approach to self-signed certs for peer-to-peer services could be both comprehensible for non-techies and highly secure.
Right.
> It unlocks the type of use case where technical people can host something from home for fun, although many can’t access it because both parties need ipv6.
At this point, that's an obstacle, but at some future point hopefully IPv6 will hit a critical mass and network effects will take off because there'll be enough stuff that _doesn't work without IPv6_, so customers will demand it.
> if you set your sights higher and want to build true p2p apps for non-techies
Definitely.
Restoring the universal endpoint-to-endpoint connectivity on the IP network overcomes a _major hurdle_, a hurdle that's so big and longstanding that people have come to just assume its existence and fear and removal… but it certainly doesn't solve all the problems.
> or if you want “roaming” servers (say an FTP server on your laptop)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multipath_TCP will take a big dent out of this, I think.
> - Opening up ports in both a residential router and sometimes the OS or 3p firewall. Most people don’t know what a port is.
I mean, UPnP makes big improvements in this area, but a lot of devices stupidly don't handle it, or block it for alleged security reasons. Frustrating.
> - DNS & certs which require a domain name and a fixed connection (if the peer moves around across networks, eg a laptop or phone, DNS is not responsive enough)
There's no real reason why TLS clients _must_ only trust certs when they see that the CN or SAN matches the _domain name_ through which they looked up the IP address. I think that with a better issuing infrastructure and UX, a TOFU-based (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trust_on_first_use) approach to self-signed certs for peer-to-peer services could be both comprehensible for non-techies and highly secure.