IPv4, IPv6, and a sudden change in attitude

The blog post explores the persistent challenges and attitudes surrounding the adoption of IPv6, contrasting it with the pragmatic evolution of IPv4, which grew organically under Postel's Law that emphasizes conservative data sending and liberal data acceptance. Despite IPv6 being designed to address IPv4's limitations, such as scalability and maintenance issues, it has not achieved universal adoption due to its more rigid design goals and the complexity of managing two competing internet protocols simultaneously. The text highlights how this duality leads to reliability issues because both IPv4 and IPv6 must coexist, necessitating complex decision-making when routing internet traffic. The author suggests that instead of trying to eliminate one of the protocols, the focus should be on developing better heuristics and approaches, like IP mobility, to dynamically manage connections and enhance reliability. This concept is exemplified by Tailscale's use of WireGuard to improve network performance by leveraging multiple internet connections, demonstrating that redundancy can be beneficial when managed effectively.