Acme, a brief history of one of the protocols which has changed the Internet

Summary

ACME, a brief history of one of the protocols which has changed the Internet Security Preamble I would like to share with you this article I wrote about the ACME protocol, which I “fell in love with” about ten years ago. It is for me a way to give back to this fantastic Free Software and Open Protocols developers community. This article is about the roots, the conception, the standardization, the relation with its ecosystem and the evolution challenges faced by the ACME protocol. To write this article, I had the privilege of interviewing several people who have been involved in the creation and the evolution of ACME: Aaron Gable, Sarah Gran, Jacob Hoffman-Andrews and J.C. Jones (more below). Thank you so much to all of you for your time and support! 💚 Internet and Network Protocols Open and Standardized Protocols at the Heart of the Internet’s Success During the 1990s, computing underwent a true revolution driven by the rise and global spread of the Internet. The Internet fulfilled the promise embodied in Sun Microsystems’ slogan “The Network is the Computer”. By interconnecting individual computers, the Internet enabled its users to communicate without limits and without worrying about borders. This unrestricted interconnection emerged at a pivotal moment in modern history: the opposition between the West and the Eastern Bloc led by the USSR had—albeit temporarily, as we now know—faded away, China was becoming the world’s factory, and the movement and collaboration between people were much freer and open than ever. The Internet supported a kind of utopia of instant communication and sharing, previously unknown. This utopia was made possible by a set of open and standardized protocols. This was the key to enabling all kinds of different systems to cooperate and communicate seamlessly. There were, of course, isolationist or monopolistic temptations from certain manufacturers or software editors. But open and standardized protocols ultimately prevailed, enabling unpre...