Perhaps you should understand a system before slandering it? As others have said, encryption without authentication is useless. Running a CA has an associated

Perhaps you should understand a system before slandering it? As others have said, encryption without authentication is useless. Running a CA has an associated cost, including maintenance, security, etc. That's what you pay for when you acquire a certificate. Whether current market prices' markup is too high would be a different question, but paying for a certificate is definitely not spending 200$ to look cool. CAs are the best known way (at the moment) to authenticate through insecure channels (before anyone brings pìnned certs or WoT, read this comment of mine: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8616766 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8616766) EDIT: You can downvote all you want but I'm still right. Excuse my tone, but slandering a system without an intimate understanding of the "how"s and the "why"s (i.e. spreading FUD) hurts everyone in the long run.