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1. Embed this notice
   Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Mar-2025 03:17:01 JST Aral Balkan

   • Let's Encrypt
   • European Commission

   “Let’s Encrypt received around $800,000 in funding from the OTF”

   Dear @EUCommission, get your heads out of your arses and let’s find @letsencrypt €1M/year (a rounding error in EU finances) and have them move to the EU.

   If Let’s Encrypt is fucked, the web is fucked, and the Small Web is fucked too. So how about we don’t let that happen, yeah?

   (In the meanwhile, if the Let’s Encrypt folks want to make a point about how essential they are, it might be an idea to refuse certificates to republican politicians. See how they like their donation systems breaking in real time…)

   CC @nlnet @NGIZero@mastodon.xyz

   #USA #fascism #OpenTechFund #LetsEncrypt #SSL #TLS #encryption #EU #web #tech #SmallWeb #SmallTech https://mastodon.social/@publictorsten/114223873439053263

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Mar-2025 03:23:02 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Let's Encrypt
     • Alexandre Dulaunoy
     • European Commission

     @a @EUCommission @letsencrypt @nlnet None of that is insurmountable or even hard. Could be done in a week if the political will was there. It’s such a low hanging fruit.

   • Embed this notice
     Alexandre Dulaunoy (a@paperbay.org)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Mar-2025 03:23:03 JST Alexandre Dulaunoy

     in reply to

     • Let's Encrypt
     • European Commission

     @aral

     The main problem is the bureaucracy associated for this. Another issue is the ownership control of the organisation (DEP Cybersecurity), the organisation needs to be controlled by EU citizen and located in EU.

     @EUCommission @letsencrypt @nlnet

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Mar-2025 03:33:51 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Let's Encrypt
     • European Commission
     • Alesandro Ortiz 🇵🇷🏳️‍🌈

     @AlesandroOrtiz @EUCommission @letsencrypt @nlnet I’d rather we (the EU, via our taxpayer money) had more of a role than Google for reasons I don’t believe I have to restate in 2025.

   • Embed this notice
     Alesandro Ortiz 🇵🇷🏳️‍🌈 (alesandroortiz@infosec.exchange)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Mar-2025 03:33:52 JST Alesandro Ortiz 🇵🇷🏳️‍🌈

     in reply to

     • Let's Encrypt
     • European Commission

     @aral @EUCommission @letsencrypt @nlnet Google and other large tech companies can also make up the difference, assuming they're funding it already. If not, they certainly should.

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Mar-2025 03:39:12 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Let's Encrypt
     • Jeroen van Tol 🍋
     • European Commission

     @TheDutchChief @EUCommission @letsencrypt @nlnet Thank you, but you shouldn’t have to. You pay your taxes? That should be enough. This should be public infrastructure.

   • Embed this notice
     Jeroen van Tol 🍋 (thedutchchief@mstdn.social)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Mar-2025 03:39:13 JST Jeroen van Tol 🍋

     in reply to

     • Let's Encrypt
     • European Commission

     @aral @EUCommission @letsencrypt @nlnet I'm happy to donate.

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Mar-2025 03:42:19 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • BenBen
     • Sovereign Tech Agency

     @BenBen @sovtechfund Thanks :)

   • Embed this notice
     BenBen (benben@chaos.social)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Mar-2025 03:42:20 JST BenBen

     in reply to

     • Sovereign Tech Agency

     @aral cc @sovtechfund

   • Embed this notice
     Tom (tdelmas@mamot.fr)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Mar-2025 03:55:03 JST Tom

     in reply to

     @aral Or let's use the protocol they created - ACME - to create more independent CA, EU-based ! https://github.com/tdelmas/Let-s-Clone

     Aral Balkan repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Mar-2025 03:55:54 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Tom

     @tdelmas Nice + yep, we could have an EU-based provider and regulate so that browsers must accept them.

   • Embed this notice
     Tom (tdelmas@mamot.fr)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Mar-2025 04:01:41 JST Tom

     in reply to

     @aral Also, the problem is not only the funding. Under US law, they can't issue certificates to anybody under US-sanctions. It's only by chance that the International Criminal Court (https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/imposing-sanctions-on-the-international-criminal-court/) was not impacted.

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Mar-2025 04:02:26 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Tom

     @tdelmas Good shout. Yes. And what’s the use of a standard if there aren’t multiple implementations?

   • Embed this notice
     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Mar-2025 05:40:30 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     • adison verlice

     @adisonverlice @aral 🙄

   • Embed this notice
     adison verlice (adisonverlice@dragonscave.space)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Mar-2025 05:40:31 JST adison verlice

     in reply to

     @aral they can't. that'd completely go against their values.
     this is like asking them to refuse letsencrypt in Russia, they can't. it's an automated certificate system, they can't just prevent the issuing certificates simply because of their party.

     even big websites, like the national security agency, and even whitehouse.gov use letsencrypt as well, so it wouldn't be a good sign for anyone.

   • Embed this notice
     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Mar-2025 05:41:26 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     • adison verlice

     @adisonverlice s/politicians that are in a different party/nazis committing genocide and on the path to obliterating democracy/

   • Embed this notice
     adison verlice (adisonverlice@dragonscave.space)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Mar-2025 05:41:27 JST adison verlice

     in reply to

     I will agree letsencrypt absolutely needs money to keep the lights on. and if worst comes to worst, hopefully they will move to EU. what I don't agree with is removing certificates from politicians that are in a different party

   • Embed this notice
     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Mar-2025 05:43:00 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     • adison verlice

     @adisonverlice If "following your values" prevents you from taking material action to impede the advance of nazis, you need to reevaluate or reprioritize your values.

   • Embed this notice
     adison verlice (adisonverlice@dragonscave.space)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Mar-2025 05:43:01 JST adison verlice

     in reply to

     • Rich Felker

     @dalias uh what?

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Mar-2025 06:33:39 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Let's Encrypt
     • Saupreiss #Präparat500
     • European Commission

     @Saupreiss @EUCommission @letsencrypt @nlnet These folks? They seem very commercial. What’s to stop them offering the free certs tomorrow? There’s value in having a noncommercial EU alternative funded with taxpayer money.

   • Embed this notice
     Saupreiss #Präparat500 (saupreiss@pfalz.social)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Mar-2025 06:33:40 JST Saupreiss #Präparat500

     in reply to

     • Let's Encrypt
     • European Commission

     @aral

     LE is not the only Provider of free ACME-Issued certificates and some of the alternatives are even based in the EU.

     @EUCommission @letsencrypt @nlnet

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Mar-2025 07:26:29 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Let's Encrypt
     • European Commission
     • josemanuel
     • CAcert

     @josemanuel @EUCommission @cacert @letsencrypt @nlnet ?

   • Embed this notice
     josemanuel (josemanuel@social.sdfeu.org)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Mar-2025 07:26:30 JST josemanuel

     in reply to

     • Let's Encrypt
     • European Commission
     • CAcert

     @aral I'm not a big fan of Let's Encrypt. I'd rather have the @EUCommission fund real grassroots efforts like @cacert

     @letsencrypt @nlnet

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Mar-2025 14:59:45 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Let's Encrypt
     • Saupreiss #Präparat500
     • European Commission

     @Saupreiss @EUCommission @letsencrypt @nlnet Indeed. But nothing I would base a future system (e.g., the Small Web) on especially when there is a noncommercial alternative (I have no choice but to go commercial right now when it comes to DNS and VPS but the idea is to abstract that away as much as possible by supporting multiple. Easier said than done without standards but I guess that’s where it differs with ACME so, who knows, it might be an idea to support them. But still, we have an opportunity to build a not-for-profit EU ACME certificate provider and we should take it.) :)

   • Embed this notice
     Saupreiss #Präparat500 (saupreiss@pfalz.social)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Mar-2025 14:59:47 JST Saupreiss #Präparat500

     in reply to

     • Let's Encrypt
     • European Commission

     @aral

     ZeroSSL is also around (Austrian company).

     But yes, indeed: They’re Both commercial, so not complete replacements. Still better than a monoculture under US jurisdiction.

     @EUCommission @letsencrypt @nlnet

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Mar-2025 16:50:22 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Let's Encrypt
     • Paul Campbell
     • European Commission

     @paul @EUCommission @letsencrypt @nlnet AFAIK, they’re all commercial. Let’s Encrypt is a not for profit. That matters. We need a non-commercial ACME provider in the EU funded by taxpayer money.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Campbell (paul@mitra.kemitix.net)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Mar-2025 16:50:25 JST Paul Campbell

     in reply to

     • Let's Encrypt
     • European Commission

     @aral @EUCommission @letsencrypt @nlnet There are European alternatives to letsencrypt. I switched to Zerossl, a German company I believe. All I had to do was add acme_ca https://acme.zerossl.com/v2/DV90 to my Caddyfile. Should be just as simple for other servers.

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Friday, 28-Mar-2025 00:03:33 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • publictorsten
     • Let's Encrypt
     • Martin Frost
     • European Commission

     @frost @EUCommission @letsencrypt @nlnet @publictorsten They’re commercial.

   • Embed this notice
     Martin Frost (frost@camp.smolnet.org)'s status on Friday, 28-Mar-2025 00:03:34 JST Martin Frost

     in reply to

     • publictorsten
     • Let's Encrypt
     • European Commission

     @aral @EUCommission @letsencrypt @nlnet @publictorsten I think you can get the same service out of Buypass, which is based in Norway. But yes, it would be bad for the web if LE died. https://european-alternatives.eu/category/acme-ssl-certificate-providers

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Tuesday, 01-Apr-2025 05:02:47 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • 🐧DaveNull🐧 ☣️pResident Evil☣
     • Let's Encrypt
     • European Commission

     @devnull @EUCommission @letsencrypt @nlnet Well, we haven’t seen a single euro cent from them, so you’re not wrong.

   • Embed this notice
     🐧DaveNull🐧 ☣️pResident Evil☣ (devnull@mamot.fr)'s status on Tuesday, 01-Apr-2025 05:02:49 JST 🐧DaveNull🐧 ☣️pResident Evil☣

     in reply to

     • Let's Encrypt
     • European Commission

     @aral "But what about funding IA-based innovation" (technofascism)…

     EU probably doesn't give a flying fuck about small web…

     @EUCommission @letsencrypt @nlnet

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Thursday, 03-Apr-2025 16:16:11 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Jens Finkhäuser
     • Let's Encrypt
     • Alexandre Dulaunoy
     • European Commission

     @jens @a @EUCommission @letsencrypt @nlnet Agree. https://mastodon.ar.al/@aral/114228345026645021

   • Embed this notice
     Jens Finkhäuser (jens@social.finkhaeuser.de)'s status on Thursday, 03-Apr-2025 16:16:14 JST Jens Finkhäuser

     in reply to

     • Let's Encrypt
     • Alexandre Dulaunoy
     • European Commission

     @a @aral We don't need to move Let's Encrypt to the EU. We need to run a EU-based equivalent, and make it so that the infrastructure they run is easily replicated.

     As this development clearly demonstrates, Let's Encrypt is a single point of failure. It was never a good idea. It was just a less bad idea than others.

     And no, that's absolutely not suggesting they didn't do great work. This is about designing for resilience.

     @EUCommission @letsencrypt @nlnet

   • Embed this notice
     Alexandre Dulaunoy (a@paperbay.org)'s status on Thursday, 03-Apr-2025 16:16:16 JST Alexandre Dulaunoy

     in reply to

     • Let's Encrypt
     • European Commission

     @aral I really would like to share your optimism too.

     If I can help in some ways, let me know. I was tracking the RFA budget withdraw and wondering how long OTF can survive without the funding.

     @EUCommission @letsencrypt @nlnet