World IPv6 Launch makes the next Internet protocol permanent

After 2011's address depletion, IPv6 existed as a finished standard offering a vastly larger address space, but many major websites and networks still ran it only as an optional, temporary test rather than a permanent default, leaving adoption fragmented. On 6 June 2012, major websites, home networking equipment vendors and Internet service providers permanently enabled IPv6 alongside IPv4 rather than switching it on and off for isolated trials, coordinated as World IPv6 Launch. Making IPv6 a permanent, default part of ordinary Internet traffic rather than an occasional experiment gave device makers, network operators and other websites a durable target to build toward, starting the slow, multi-decade transition whose progress is now tracked through metrics like the ratio of IPv6 to IPv4 traffic.