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From: R. Feldman
Subject: Who can issue certificates?
Date: 28 Elul 5781
Let the chair attempt a summary.
We have established:
1. Anyone can run the protocol and issue certificates. The protocol does not restrict issuance. 2. There is no universal authority that approves issuers. No such authority exists in Jewish life. 3. Relying parties maintain their own trust stores. They decide which issuers and policies to accept. 4. Default configurations carry implicit authority. Whoever provides defaults shapes the ecosystem.
The protocol is neutral. The implementations are not. The power lies with whoever ships the software and whoever configures it.
This mirrors how Jewish authority has always functioned. The halacha does not specify which rabbis to follow. Communities decide. Individuals decide. The decisions are not uniform.
—Yaakov Feldman, Chair
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