Re: why did IPv6 use 128bit Hex?
Actually it was desireable. Well, desireable by some, mostly the mobile industry. Along with the idea that exposing MAC addresses. So mobile wanted a zillion IP addresses because every handset (plus IoT) would need at least 4096 globally routable & unique IPs. To go with phone numbers, IMEIs, IMSIs and even the good'ol MAC address.. Or other hardware identifiers.
ISPs kinda scratched their heads wondering what benefit there'd be in MAC tagging, other than user tracking. Much the same with the mobile's argument, especially when the operators twigged that having a globally routable IP address on a phone meant users could potentially escape their walled gardens and do things the operators couldn't charge for.
But basically a protocol designed by committee with a bunch of different and competing interests & creating headaches for the ops community who had to figure out the security implications.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
