Let's Encrypt Down to 1.6% in Geminispace (It Was About 12% Only a Few Years Ago)
Certificate Authorities (CAs) led by Let's Encrypt need to be shunned for privacy's sake
IN THE article published yesterday afternoon I said there were only 50 known (to Lupa) Gemini capsules left that are tied to the monopolistic, imperialistic cartel (where further consolidation of power is still ongoing). Less than 24 hours have passed and now it's down to 47. Counter-intuitively, especially given the name "Let's Encrypt", it is not a friend of your privacy, security, freedom etc. Encryption can be used for privacy, but those aren't the same thing.
The number of known Gemini capsules continues to grow. Almost 4,100 capsules now! But here is the encouraging part for today:
That's where Gemini Protocol is heading - self-signed certificates or certificates attached to one's own authority, which means no outside party - or some cartel of parties with overlapping censorship interests - can deny access to a resource (or even revoke access without explanation, due process etc.), more so in the era of "Criminalisation of Privacy-Preserving Communications".
Sadly, today's browsers make it complicated or altogether impossible to leverage the collective power of self-signed certificates and the EFF isn't making any software tools to make that simpler; instead it encourages sites to offload everything to the Linux Foundation's monopoly/monoculture - one whose goal is to spread itself so widely that not only will Web browsers strictly block/reject self-signed certificates but also drop support for http (somewhere down the line). Awful stuff. Remember what they already did to root certificates, rendering perfectly OK electronics unable to access the Web.
"Either no one knows how to do self-signed certificates any more," an associate moaned, "or those few who do know aren't telling, or both. Most likely both."
So that's just another aspect of enshittification online. Many people who think they control their sites don't fully control these and there are ramifications for availability and confidentiality. ClownFlare has made very big business out of this outsourcing of certificates - a fact that merit unease considering ClownFlare's connections to the US Army.
If the Web becomes dominated by browsers like Chrom* and Firefox (or derivatives), there will be nothing except outsourcing left. No other option will be accepted by the lion's share of Web browsers. "The implications are," to quote an associate, "1) buy a certificate controlled by others 2) exclude air-gapped networks" (part of the war on privacy, which intensified a lot in recent days, especially in the EU). █