> So, I've always been somewhat annoyed at SSL/TLS. It requires everyone to go through a complex "ACME" dance just to put up a public website. Worse, certificates expire every few months, so it's not a one and done thing: even with automation, maintaining a certificate requires care to ensure the ACME client always has access to DNS records or the web server.
Not actually all that long ago, people faced down the prospect of $1000+/year E.V. Verisign certs that involved faxing legal documents, phone calls, and other probing. Many jumped for joy when LetsEncrypt was finally mature enough for the mainstream. Kids these days don't know how good they've got it...
Yes, but back then SSL/TLS wasn’t a requirement to publish anything on the web. You just needed a domain, and IP and a web server. The minimum bureaucracy you have to do now is much greater.
It's still not a requirement. Most modern browser will pester you about it, but it can be circumvented. And it was already a bad idea to publish anything without encryption at the time, and it still is. The issue with SSL/TLS and in general with most encryption scheme (even e2e) is bootstrapping trust, and to my knowledge, there is no perfect way to deal with that. The CA system as its pros and cons and LE at least fixed the biggest flaw for the web (good luck if you need a certificate that can't use an ACME challenge, like most thing non-web tho').
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