What It Costs to Run Let's Encrypt • Hacker News Board

Re: What It Costs to Run Let's Encrypt

#311

Post by aisofteng » Wed, Sep 21, 2016, 12:38 AM UTC

jedberg wrote: post #37

To everyone complaining about the $250K (see edit, it's actually 200K) per person in salary (which seems to be everyone at the moment), a few things to keep in mind: 1) That includes benefits 2) They are in Silicon Valley and have to compete with everyone else in Silicon Valley 3) Given what they have accomplished with such a small team, these are probably high caliber people. 4) In SV there is a good 25% premium you…

I agree and want to corroborate from another point of view, speaking as someone that's hired at and been a technical lead at multiple organizations: it's very hard to find actual talent, and paying a higher salary for one actually talented engineer is almost always a better investment than paying average salaries for, say, three average engineers (conservatively).

From that point of view, which I am convinced of, I not only see no problem with this - I see it as a good sign, and have more faith in the organization because of it.

Re: What It Costs to Run Let's Encrypt

#312

Post by ersii » Wed, Sep 21, 2016, 12:47 AM UTC

ausjke wrote: post #269

watwatwatwat wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not. I test a lot of ideas but don't have much money. I have already to pay for hosting and DNS. SSL is optional. I'm very thankful to let's encrypt for the opportunity to use SSL on my sites. Also SSL (and the web) is a broken technology, I'm not going to pay for something broken.

there is nothing really that is free beer in the world, the money has to come somewhere, either some "rich" guys donate the fund, so the rest gets a free ride, or everybody pays a little, say, $5 per year, what's wrong with that? I'm not a rich guy per se, but I want to pay reasonable fee for what I got.

You can still do so by donating 5$ per year or any other amount you'd like - which is awesome! More things should come around in this way. Talk about being inclusive.

Re: What It Costs to Run Let's Encrypt

#313

Post by ersii » Wed, Sep 21, 2016, 12:50 AM UTC

brilee wrote: post #242

I recently replaced my paid SSL certs using LE. I took what I would have paid in SSL costs over the next two years and donated it instead.

That's a fantastic initiative! Bravo!

Re: What It Costs to Run Let's Encrypt

#314

Post by eropple » Wed, Sep 21, 2016, 12:51 AM UTC

pw wrote: post #296

eropple wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who are near the top of the skill curve, and can present a business case for being paid like it , don't make $75K in Omaha for that job. (They may make $9K in Phuket, but there are additional factors on top of that.) If I left Boston today, I'd still make what I make here. I have considered doing exactly that.

I think it has a lot less to do with being at the top of the skill curve than with making the business case for it.

I'm sure that's true. The world is not a technical problem. It just happens that the folks I know in that position more than deserve it from a technical perspective.

Re: What It Costs to Run Let's Encrypt

#315

Post by Gatsky » Wed, Sep 21, 2016, 12:52 AM UTC

Reading these comments, it's hard not to agree with the sentiment that being transparent about salary data is of dubious value to a company.

Re: What It Costs to Run Let's Encrypt

#316

Post by nickpsecurity » Wed, Sep 21, 2016, 12:57 AM UTC

CiPHPerCoder wrote: post #273

nickpsecurity wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree in terms of results and like them. Yet, I'll ask you since you're still in industry: "Wouldn't it be cheaper if they got hackers in Germany like close to Berlin? And not be operating in a police state with secret courts and such?" The latter is ironic given Germany's history. Legal aside, I've seen plenty of folks over there putting together OS's, VPN's, cryptophones, etc. Most doing heavy lifting don't make…

> Most doing heavy lifting don't make SF wages or have office costs that high. I work remotely from home and don't make anywhere near as much as someone in the valley. However, I'm quite happy with my cost of living. :)

I see you playing it smart. Good for you! :)

Re: What It Costs to Run Let's Encrypt

#317

Post by classycoder » Wed, Sep 21, 2016, 1:04 AM UTC

encryption is for homosexuals and pedophiles, the largest hacking leaks and bugs reported are always to do with encryption.

we the Internet does not need homosexuals nor encryptions.

encryption slows the internet, kills cats

Re: What It Costs to Run Let's Encrypt

#318

Post by naveen99 » Wed, Sep 21, 2016, 1:07 AM UTC

Has anyone tried to incorporate signed executable loader into the Linux kernel ?

Hopefully letsencrypt can start certifying code signing keybase keys.

Also would be nice if someone would offer a service to build executables from open source code and code sign certifying that a particular executable was built from a particular source openly available.

Re: What It Costs to Run Let's Encrypt

#319

Post by vostok » Wed, Sep 21, 2016, 1:09 AM UTC

needcaffeine wrote: post #301

vostok wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you consider anecdotal evidence then I have received, with no negotiation, similar (statistically identical) offers in low cost of living areas and high cost of living areas.

I'd love to know where. Not trying to be snarky.

I work in a pretty small niche that's concentrated in high cost of living areas so I would prefer not to get too specific. One example was a company in the same country as Omaha with similar cost of living.

A different company was in a different country than Omaha and the naive cost of living was higher, but the cost of living, after adjusting for taxes, was actually very similar.

I hope that gives enough information. I really enjoy living in high cost of living areas so that's where I ended up, but I did have the choice to live somewhere cheaper.

Re: What It Costs to Run Let's Encrypt

#320

Post by Swizec » Wed, Sep 21, 2016, 1:15 AM UTC

czep wrote: post #297

Swizec wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in Silicon Valley and I would love a $250k salary. But I also didn't graduate college and incur the immigrant tax. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ What I'm saying is, not everyone gets $250k and the MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME in San Francisco is $90k. If you're not making that much, don't sweat it, you're likely way above median either way. Edit: to clarify further. As an Engineer with a reasonably-employed girlfriend, I still get to liv…

Income data does not give you the full picture, especially in a city like SF. A lot of people have inherited wealth or trusts that provide moderate income (at least as reported to the IRS), so looking at income alone is insufficient for understanding wealth profiles. My neighbor runs a small business and makes $60k/year. But he lives in a house he inherited worth over $3mn while paying taxes on the value it was asses…

This answers my perennial question of "How the hell do these people survive??"

Any idea where I could find wealth data? Would be super cool to research as I spend a lot of time thinking about stuff like this.