Cloudflare intends to establish itself as a public certificate authority (CA), an entity responsible for issuing the digital certificates websites utilize for traffic encryption and identity verification. The company has announced plans to issue both conventional certificates and a post-quantum variant known as Merkle Tree Certificates (MTCs), with production MTC issuance anticipated for the first quarter of 2027.
The company's motivation stems from concerns that a limited number of dominant CAs currently underpin much of the web's certificate issuance, making the system vulnerable to widespread failure or compromise. Cloudflare also projects that quantum computers capable of breaking current encryption standards could emerge within a few years. Its new high-scale issuer aims to address the former issue, while MTCs are designed to counter the latter.
To ensure its certificates are recognized across a broad range of devices, including older models that no longer receive software updates, Cloudflare has agreed to acquire publicly trusted root key material from GlobalSign. This acquisition is expected to conclude within two months, pending customary closing conditions.
Cloudflare has also submitted applications to the root programs of major browsers and operating systems, including Chrome, Apple, Microsoft, and Mozilla. The issuance of classical certificates will commence only after these applications are approved, all of which are currently pending.
Matthew Prince, CEO and co-founder of Cloudflare, emphasized the company's commitment to enhancing web security, drawing a parallel to its earlier initiative of providing free and automatic encryption. He highlighted the significant coordination challenge involved in upgrading web security before quantum computers pose a threat, noting that the company aims to provide a "permanent safety net" by balancing support for older devices with new post-quantum technology.
MTCs, which Cloudflare co-authored as an IETF draft specification, enable browsers to verify a certificate's presence in a trusted registry using lightweight proofs. This approach is designed to circumvent the heavy computational burden of sending post-quantum signatures with every connection, a concept Cloudflare previously explored in an experiment with Chrome.
Cloudflare has also committed to providing a live public health dashboard and reproducible code builds for its CA operations. The company plans to leverage automated renewal signaling (RFC 9773) to facilitate background certificate replacements across millions of sites during routine revocations or security updates. Site administrators will be able to manage both classic and MTC certificates within a single system, without a forced transition.
