Re:Crypto Zealots
by tialaramex on Friday March 09, 2018 @07:32AM
(#16551265)
Nah, there are two things going on here, and they're separate
1. The Let's Encrypt service from ISRG, which is a charity and so obviously if the donations dried up and somehow we didn't fix that then eventually (maybe a year or more) it would go away. This is also true for Wikipedia and the EFF in the most obvious direct sense, but it's true for all commercial services you rely on too, Youtube, Facebook, Hacker News, all could go away if their owners decide there isn't enough money any more.
2. ACME and other certificate automation. These are protocols, in ACME's case IETF Standards Track protocols, for how we can validate control over a name and issue certificates to an applicant. These don't vanish if ISRG goes away. For example loads of cPanel users already don't use Let's Encrypt, they have a single button "Yes, I want free certificates" feature, and Comodo (the root CA behind that) is taking a slice out of the cPanel license fees.
1. The Let's Encrypt service from ISRG, which is a charity and so obviously if the donations dried up and somehow we didn't fix that then eventually (maybe a year or more) it would go away. This is also true for Wikipedia and the EFF in the most obvious direct sense, but it's true for all commercial services you rely on too, Youtube, Facebook, Hacker News, all could go away if their owners decide there isn't enough money any more.
2. ACME and other certificate automation. These are protocols, in ACME's case IETF Standards Track protocols, for how we can validate control over a name and issue certificates to an applicant. These don't vanish if ISRG goes away. For example loads of cPanel users already don't use Let's Encrypt, they have a single button "Yes, I want free certificates" feature, and Comodo (the root CA behind that) is taking a slice out of the cPanel license fees.