Cloudflare Plans Public Certificate Authority for Post-Quantum Web Security
Summary
Cloudflare plans to launch a public Certificate Authority supporting traditional certificates and post-quantum Merkle Tree Certificates. It is seeking browser root-program inclusion and expects production MTC issuance to begin in Q1 2027.
Key points
- Cloudflare plans to issue traditional certificates and post-quantum Merkle Tree Certificates through a new public CA.
- The company has agreed to acquire publicly trusted root CA key material from GlobalSign; the deal is expected to close within two months, subject to conditions.
- Cloudflare has applied to join the Chrome, Apple, Microsoft, and Mozilla root programs.
- Classical certificate issuance is planned after the browser root-program application and acceptance process.
- Production MTC issuance is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2027.
- Cloudflare says automated renewal signaling could enable certificate replacement across sites during revocations or security updates.
Article Details
- Event Type
- Cloudflare announced plans to become a public Certificate Authority and to issue traditional certificates and post-quantum Merkle Tree Certificates. It also agreed to acquire publicly trusted Root CA key material from GlobalSign, subject to closing conditions.
- Impact
- The planned CA is intended to add an independent, high-scale certificate issuer and support a transition to post-quantum web security. Cloudflare says its certificates are designed for broad browser and device recognition, including legacy devices. The company said classical certificate issuance depends on completing browser root-program applications and acceptance; production MTC issuance is scheduled for Q1 2027.
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Merkle Tree Certificates (MTCs)The new CA will support both traditional encryption and next-generation post-quantum Merkle Tree Certificates (MTCs), giving every website a path to stay protected as computing power advances—with no new tools orUniversal SSLIn 2014, Cloudflare launched Universal SSL and instantly doubled the amount of encrypted traffic on the web overnight by offering free TLS certificates to millions of websites. Today, the vast majority of the encrypted