The IP blacklists will become obsolete in the years to come

There are a variety of IP blacklists used at the moment:

in firewalls
to stop SPAM: DNSBL (Domain Name System Blacklists) such as SpamHaus, Barracuda, etc
reputation systems (like “Webroot® BrightCloud® Threat Intelligence”)

They are currently all using IPv4. However as IPv6 is slowly taking over: billions & billions of IP addresses are now available. The concept of blacklisting an IP address will become obsolete: it makes absolutely no sense to slow down network speeds with a filter that has to go through billions of row. The trend is pointing towards faster networks, not slower ones.

What does it mean?

It means that users will have to stop using those services. And the companies selling those services will have to quickly switch to something else. And it is a good riddance!

What about geographic localisation by IP address?

This will go probably fade away. And Netflix is in trouble: as they use geo-ip localisation for restrictions.

How do you keep away the bad guys away then?

As far as SPAM is concerned: DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail) will become a mandatory standard. DKIM signatures can already be checked during the SMTP connections, thus SPAM will get rejected even before it gets delivered.

For firewalls: DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks will be harder to stop, and port flooding control will become the norm.