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I wish there was a free alternative to the German/Europe QES ("Qualified Signature"). The cheapest currently is about 20 EUR/ Month and allows you to make 3 Signatures. Others ask for 50 EUR for each QES. I hate to pay for my own Signature! We need something like Let's Encrypt for signatures.

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Other EU countries offer this for free, e.g. https://www.a-trust.at/pdfsign

What's even worse is that in Germany most companies and authorities refuse to accept those digitally signed PDFs.

I wanted to come back here and add a thank you. I registered at a-trust through their EU-Identity Login and now I am able to sign 5 Signatures (QES) for free each month. Great!

> We need something like Let's Encrypt for signatures.

It's not the technical infrastructure, it's about trust. LE only solved the problem of safe transport, but not verification of authenticity of the endpoints. That's what incurs such cost.

The endpoint (my ID) is free - it can be used to verify myself digitally. And that is what all QES services do, initially (once). What other costs if not hardware/bandwidth apply?

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