I always thought IP6 addresses are too long. Even with 8 bytes, as proposed here, there's 4 billion addresses each for 4 billion people. That should really be enough.
The read threads block because the ReadWriteLock algorithm tries to prevent thread starvation (i.e. when the exclusive lock never gets acquired). Most ReadWriteLock implementation alternate between giving the read locks then the exclusive locks access to the lock.
I live in a super high lightning area. No matter how good your protection, if you get struck directly, everything is fried. But that's not your biggest problem as you'll rarely if ever get hit directly. The electronics killer is static electricity that builds up everywhere during an electric storm. For this your DB and plug lightning/surge protectors work quite well. The rod on the roof helps preventing direct strikes, good grounding helps with static build-up. You can even put a copper wire around the perimeter of your property to equalise/move the static electricity. Nothing helps when you get struck directly.
Somehow my school in a developing country had a fully equipped BBC Micro lab with network (Econet) and file servers. Due the BBC Basic I picked up assembly language for the first time there. Also the sound chip was very advanced with programmable envelopes. And all the screen modes were very useful for different applications. Amazing computer for its time.
The utility of a scarce token that can have ownership changed, permissionless (without a third party) to anyone, anywhere in the world, basically instantaneously. Some might call that "money".