Will there be IPv6 to IPv6 NAT after all?

I don't like the idea of people on the internet being able to ping, port scan, and easily infect any devices on my home network. With IPv6 someone could ping my iPhone, port scan my laptop, etc. On IPv4 everyone has a single external IP address, and that is assigned to a router which acts as a hardware firewall. Will IPv6 have something like this where you can put all your devices behind a single IP? Will it be the default? Or are we all screwed, set to enter the IPv6 surveillance society?

Well, your security issue can be solved without worrying about a Ipv6 upgrade. No matter what there will be hackers and everyone has to prepare for that. So I would suggest if you have any free time, set up port range forwarding to a dead device and have it run so all the junk gets sent there. So instead of them accessing your devices instead it heads to that junk pc/phone. The ports should cover 1-50000. Try not to worry too much though. IPv6 will come out and it will flop.

Considering the world population of IPv4 devices, I suspect it will be a long time before IPv4 disappears completely. What I expect is a three stage approach:

1. The main parts of the Internet will switch to IPv6, and the ISPs will offer an IPv6 to IPv4 gateway.

2. This gradually extends into the end users' premises, where local routers will use IPv6 to the ISP, but IPv4 on the internal networks.

3. IPv6 spreads to devices on the internal networks.

I believe it will be many years before IPv4 disappears, and there will be many more security challenges and solutions to consider before it does disappear. After all, with all the NAT routers that exist in the world, there are already far, far more IPv4 devices using the Internet than the 4 billion different addresses that IPv4 offers.

Popularity has nothing to do with the switch. IPv4 addresses are being depleted and will be gone in a couple years, and some countries are already out of their allottments. There are a couple things you can do for protection. I don't believe there will be any v6 NAT, as its unnecessary (NAT is not a protection scheme anyways). You can always invest in protection devices, such as routers with firewalls, and use the built in (or added) protection programs available on your devices.

Also, your iPhone probably already has an public IP if you have a data plan. Try not to be too paranoid about it, as most of the things you think IPv6 will allow people to do can already be done w/ v4, even behind a NAT.