I'm talking about the overall post (i.e. JoshTriplett's submission) there, not the parentmost comment by payne92. I read payne92's comment as dreaming about an alternate past where something like Let's Encrypt was available from the start because that was the original model of trust in TLS, not authorities saying "we will certify that you are who you say you are" but merely authorities saying "we will certify that someone who proved their control of that domain name recently, said that this was a valid public key for it."