Shortening the Let's Encrypt Chain of Trust - Let's Encrypt
letsencrypt.org
When Let’s Encrypt first launched, we needed to ensure that our certificates were widely trusted. To that end, we arranged to have our intermediate certificates cross-signed by IdenTrust’s DST Root CA X3. This meant that all certificates issued by those intermediates would be trusted, even while our own ISRG Root X1 wasn’t yet. During subsequent years, our Root X1 became widely trusted on its own. Come late 2021, our cross-signed intermediates and DST Root CA X3 itself were expiring.

When Let’s Encrypt first launched, we needed to ensure that our certificates were widely trusted. To that end, we arranged to have our intermediate certificates cross-signed by IdenTrust’s DST Root CA X3. This meant that all certificates issued by those intermediates would be trusted, even while our own ISRG Root X1 wasn’t yet. During subsequent years, our Root X1 became widely trusted on its own. Come late 2021, our cross-signed intermediates and DST Root CA X3 itself were expiring.