why is IPv6 not so widespread? also what makes IPv6 great?
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The internet allows every connected device to be discoverable using just an IP address. IPv4 allows ~4.3 billion total addresses, which is now a problem because the total number of endpoints greatly exceeds that. IPv6 fixes that problem by increasing the address space to roughly 340 trillion trillion trillion, effectively infinite for our needs.
While IPv6 is gaining more and more support, it is not widespread because we have already worked around the problems of IPv4 in other ways, and so there is no urgency to upgrade everyone. For example, ISPs will dynamically assign IP addresses to customers as needed, and take them back when they disconnect. Your home router will do something called Network Address Translation, so every device in your house will share the single public IP address that the ISP has provided you. None of these are ideal, but they work and no one wants to change everything up.
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