To me, the most obvious motivation for registering the domain would be to basically make a domain squat. Redirect anyone visiting "letsencrypt.cn" to their own,

To me, the most obvious motivation for registering the domain would be to basically make a domain squat. Redirect anyone visiting "letsencrypt.cn" to their own, similarly named (and now defunct as far as I know) service "StartEncrypt" [1]. Like any other domain squat, it would probably allow them to profit to some degree from the buzz Let's Encrypt was generating. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11903513 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11903513