EFF project “Let's Encrypt”, with Mozilla and Cisco, releases its first free HTTPS certificate
'Let's Encrypt' project issues its first free certificate — Last year, the Electronic Frontier Foundation along with Mozilla and Cisco launched an initiative called “Let's Encrypt” …
Context & Ripple Effects
The first certificate is the proof point for the plan EFF, Mozilla and Cisco laid out when they announced the limited launch schedule in June: automated, free TLS issuance with general availability targeted for mid-September. The remaining hurdle was trust — a root that browsers don't recognize protects nothing.
That hurdle fell within weeks, as Mozilla-backed Let's Encrypt reported its certificates were trusted by all major browsers, turning a pilot into usable infrastructure. The trajectory since is what makes this milestone worth marking: three years on, the project had become the world's largest certificate issuer.
First-order effects
- Web publishers can now encrypt their sites at zero cost, removing the per-certificate fee that previously made HTTPS an expense decision rather than a default.
Second-order effects
- Paid certificate authorities face price pressure from a free, automated alternative, while browser vendors' willingness to trust the new root signals that issuance itself is being treated as commodity infrastructure.
Third-order effects
- If adoption follows the curve the coverage shows — 1M certificates within months, then hundreds of millions across unique domains — encrypted connections become the baseline expectation for the web, with certificate cost ceasing to be a reason any site stays on HTTP.
The trend: Certificate issuance is shifting from a paid, manually managed product line to free automated infrastructure, making HTTPS the default state of the web.