Top all-time · #40
Let's Encrypt
Company blog · letsencrypt.orgsecuritysystems
Let's Encrypt is the company blog at letsencrypt.org, writing about security and systems. Since 2014, 652 different Hacker News readers have linked it 936 times, most often “Let’s Encrypt: Delivering SSL/TLS Everywhere”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-29, and you can follow it by feed.
Rarely recommended · 0 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN commenters link Let's Encrypt's pages to back points about certificate chains and cross-signing, rate limits, the 90-day certificate lifetime, client options, and the org's announcements and sponsorship.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Let's Encrypt is a free, automated, and open Certificate Authority brought to you by the nonprofit Internet Security Research Group (ISRG). Read all about our work in our Annual Report.
Most-linked posts?
- Let’s Encrypt: Delivering SSL/TLS Everywhere117 people · 125 mentions · first linked 2014-11-18
- Rate Limits27 people · 27 mentions · first linked 2016-07-26
- Why ninety-day lifetimes for certificates?23 people · 23 mentions · first linked 2015-11-09
- Let's Encrypt swag is here and I love it22 people · 22 mentions · first linked 2015-12-03
- Let's Encrypt Stats22 people · 22 mentions · first linked 2015-11-10
- /21 people · 22 mentions · first linked 2015-02-27
- Chain of Trust19 people · 23 mentions · first linked 2015-09-14
- The CA's Role in Fighting Phishing and Malware18 people · 20 mentions · first linked 2015-10-29
- /docs/client-options/18 people · 18 mentions · first linked 2016-08-17
- /docs/challenge-types/17 people · 17 mentions · first linked 2020-05-20
What Hacker News says?
Thanks for the clarification! You might want to add that point to your technical how-it-works section[1]. I was wondering how older browsers would accept a new CA's signature. Also, I really wish AOL would have donated their root certs to y'all[2] so you didn't have to set up a whole new CA. [1]: https://letsencrypt.org/howitworks/technology/ [2]: https://moderncrypto.org/mail-archive/messaging/2014/000618....
Comment linking /howitworks/technology/
on “Launching in 2015: A Certificate Authority to Encrypt the Entire Web”Submitted Let's Encrypt Root Trusted by All Major Root Programs as a story · 1532 points
HN discussionThe "How It Works" page ( https://letsencrypt.org/howitworks/ ) says: - Obtain a browser-trusted certificate and set it up on your web serve IdenTrust is listed as a sponsor and is the CA for the letsencrypt.org certificate so I'm guessing they're doing some sort of partnership.
Comment linking /howitworks/
on “Launching in 2015: A Certificate Authority to Encrypt the Entire Web”Submitted Defending Our Brand as a story · 1346 points
HN discussionFor those who are wondering why sschueller is saying such things (when I first read his comment my reaction was "how the f* could this be limited to Apache?", which worried me since I mostly use lighttpd), see the How It Works page [1] of Let's Encrypt. > I would rather have the client just output the certificate and key in a dir Could not agree more. [1] https://letsencrypt.org/howitworks/
Comment linking /howitworks/
on “Launching in 2015: A Certificate Authority to Encrypt the Entire Web”Submitted Let's Encrypt is Trusted as a story · 1260 points
HN discussionThe "How It Works" page, https://letsencrypt.org/howitworks/ , has me a bit worried. Anytime I see a __magic__ solution that has you running a single command to solve all your problems I immediately become suspicious at how much thought went into the actual issue. If I'm running a single web app on a single Ubuntu server using Apache then I'm set! If I'm running multiple web apps across multiple servers using a load…
Comment linking /howitworks/
on “Launching in 2015: A Certificate Authority to Encrypt the Entire Web”Submitted Entering Public Beta as a story · 1249 points
HN discussionSome context on how this works: your system (usually OS) ships with a bunch of root certificates that are allowed to sign any certificate (de facto). New CAs need to get in that store to be trusted, but they don't get to be in that store until they convince a vendor (here, "root program") to include them. But LE has been around for a while and its certs mostly work fine everywhere! That's partially because it was al…
Comment linking /certificates/
on “Let's Encrypt Root Trusted by All Major Root Programs”Submitted Let's Encrypt Has Issued a Billion Certificates as a story · 1160 points
HN discussionAlso of note, they've raised the rate limit for certificates per registered domain per week: https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/certificates-per-registe... > The ‘certificates per registered domain per week’ limit has been raised from 20 to 50. https://letsencrypt.org/docs/rate-limits/
Comment linking /docs/rate-limits/
on “Let's Encrypt Root Trusted by All Major Root Programs”Submitted Our First Certificate Is Now Live as a story · 1131 points
HN discussionJust in case anyone isn't aware, this isn't about browser compatibility today (which uses the DST certificate from IdenTrust) but about future compatibility without the IdenTrust cross signature. https://letsencrypt.org/certificates/ Edit: lvh has explained this better at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17699037
Comment linking /certificates/
on “Let's Encrypt Root Trusted by All Major Root Programs”Submitted Leaving Beta, New Sponsors as a story · 896 points
HN discussionWe provide multiple options, including PayPal. The primary option here uses Stripe via DonorBox: https://letsencrypt.org/donate/
Comment linking /donate/
on “Let's Encrypt Root Trusted by All Major Root Programs”Submitted Wildcard Certificates Coming January 2018 as a story · 857 points
HN discussionthat's why letsencrypt use a single database on a powerful server https://letsencrypt.org/2021/01/21/next-gen-database-servers...
Comment linking /2021/01/21/next-gen-database-servers.html
on “Use one big server”Submitted 10 Years of Let's Encrypt as a story · 817 points
HN discussionLet's Encrypt's database server [1] would beg to differ. For businesses at certain scale two servers are really an overkill. [1] https://letsencrypt.org/2021/01/21/next-gen-database-servers...
Comment linking /2021/01/21/next-gen-database-servers.html
on “Use one big server”Submitted Certificates for localhost as a story · 684 points
HN discussionSee also Let's Encrypt: https://letsencrypt.org/2021/01/21/next-gen-database-servers...
Comment linking /2021/01/21/next-gen-database-servers.html
on “I got pwned by my cloud costs”Submitted What It Costs to Run Let's Encrypt as a story · 680 points
HN discussionI donated as well, and this is why: We're making it possible for everyone to experience a secure and privacy-respecting Web. We make it easy to get certificates for HTTPS, because ease of use is critical for adoption. We provide certificates free of charge, because cost excludes people. Our certificates are available in every country in the world, because the secure Web is for everyone. We strive to be open and tran…
Comment linking /donate/
on “Defending Our Brand”Submitted Standing on our own two feet as a story · 584 points
HN discussionWhen you're a very public open-source project whose brand is so central to success, registration is the better thing to spend their money on. Let's Encrypt did not show good judgment on this one. EDIT: For example, they probably spent a employee/retained-attorney time worth more than $375 just to put together their Trademark Policy page. [1] [1] https://letsencrypt.org/trademarks/
Comment linking /trademarks/
on “Defending Our Brand”Submitted Milestone: 100M Certificates Issued as a story · 581 points
HN discussionWell, there you have it Comodo. Issued new certificates for my humble domains even thought they're not yet expired. And there you have it Let's Encrypt, I've donated https://letsencrypt.org/donate/
Comment linking /donate/
on “Defending Our Brand”Submitted Let's Encrypt is 10 years old now as a story · 543 points
HN discussionI'm also puzzled that Let's Encrypt's Trademark policy [1] strongly suggests that 'Let's Encrypt' is a trademark (word mark?) that they have registered, and yet according to the most recent letter sent by the USPTO [2] "The Office records have been searched and there are no similar registered or pending marks that would bar registration [...]" [1] https://letsencrypt.org/trademarks/ [2] http://tsdr.uspto.gov/documen…
Comment linking /trademarks/
on “Defending Our Brand”Submitted The database servers powering Let's Encrypt as a story · 529 points
HN discussion
