alt Hacker News> Peer-to-peer communications such as gaming usually have to deal with NAT traversal, but with IPv6 this is no longer an issue, especially for multiple gamers using the same connection
You know the list of "benefits" is thin when the second item is entirely theoretical. Even though IPv6 doesn't have to do NAT traversal, it still has to punch through your router's firewall which is effectively the same problem. Most ISP provided home routers simply block all incoming IPv6 traffic unless there is outbound traffic first, and provide little to no support for custom IPv6 rules.
Even if that were not an issue, my bet is that there are close to zero popular games that actually use true peer to peer networking.
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> it still has to punch through your router's firewall
That's why most routers use a stateful firewall. Then nothing has to "punch through" it just has to be established from the local side.
> block all incoming IPv6 traffic unless there is outbound traffic first, and provide little to no support for custom IPv6 rules.
This is why STUN exists.
> my bet is that there are close to zero popular games that actually use true peer to peer networking.
For game state? You're probably right. For low latency voice chat? It's more common than you'd think.
Getting a streamer’s IP attracts DDoSes and doxxing, so yeah it’s generally considered a vulnerability to use P2P in games
Not having a congested CGNAT in the mix at 4pm every day is a nice benefit.
Also NAT66 exists and I use it on my home network so you still have to have the machinery to do NAT traversal when needed. It's nice to use my public addresses like elastic IPs instead of delegating ports. IPv6 stans won't be able to bully their way into pretending that NAT doesn't exist on IPv6.
Punching through just a firewall is much easier than punching through a typical NAT+firewall setup
https://tailscale.com/blog/how-nat-traversal-works