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Data Sovereignty
Preparing the web for post-quantum cryptography
Through the Sovereign Tech Fund, we have contracted the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG) to move Let's Encrypt to Merkle Tree Certificates, a new format for website certificates that stays secure in the quantum era. With ISRG, we invest in making post-quantum security the default for everyone, built on open standards and open source software.” Before Let's Encrypt launched in 2015, certificates cost money and required manual work. ISRG expects the authentication data to stay under 1,000 bytes per connection, which is smaller than today. It will then make the service ready for production: able to survive the loss of a data center, compliant with browser and industry rules, and supported by documentation for the people who run web servers. In 2025, we commissioned work on Let's Encrypt itself: preparing its database for short-lived certificates, adding support for Encrypted Client Hello, and deploying Hickory DNS. The Sovereign Tech Agency is commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation to strengthen the open source infrastructure that the digital world relies on.