VEKN-id History

I'm curious about the history of VEKN-ids. When were they introduced and first used? Looking at the player registry, it looks like the format changed from a 4 digit format to the current 7 digit format. When did that happen? Now, Princes register new ids through the forums. Hopw was that different in past?

IIRC Princes always could create VEKN IDs (with their 3 digit Prefix then ----) but you also could create your own on the White Wolf website, those are the 100---- numbers.