”Are there any plans to run alternate free ACME CAs to prevent Let's Encrypt from becoming a single point of failure?”
This is an interesting question. Let’s Encrypt is built on openness and open source software, so it’s possible to ”clone” their service. However, it would require some funds to do so. (According to the article, they now operate on $3.6M/year.) So I can’t see that happening soon, not as long as Let’s Encrypt run their service in a trustworthy manner. But perhaps some entity would spin up a niched version. E.g. if a country would launch it’s own LE service for their citizens and domestic companies and organizations.
This is an interesting question. Let’s Encrypt is built on openness and open source software, so it’s possible to ”clone” their service. However, it would require some funds to do so. (According to the article, they now operate on $3.6M/year.) So I can’t see that happening soon, not as long as Let’s Encrypt run their service in a trustworthy manner. But perhaps some entity would spin up a niched version. E.g. if a country would launch it’s own LE service for their citizens and domestic companies and organizations.
[Edited again regarding funds required.]