> And, as always with the certificate authorities, a thousand murderous theocracies, advertising companies, and international spy organizations are allowed to i

> And, as always with the certificate authorities, a thousand murderous theocracies, advertising companies, and international spy organizations are allowed to impersonate you by design. Certificate transparency has been required by chrome for new certificates (and sites that opted in) since 2018, and all older certificates expired by 2021 (because certificates have a maximum allowable lifetime). So this was dubious even at time of writing, and outright false today, for a large majority of users. > Let's Encrypt isn't free to run, either. Their 2019 operating budget is 3.6 million U.S. dollars. Most of that is donated by… guess who? Your competitors. Let's Encrypt has something like 80 sponsors listed. The vast majority of them are not, actually, competing with you. Even if some of them are, the nature of a non-profit funded by a wide range of sponsors just makes it a terrible way to attack someone.