[Spivak]

I think you'll find that even without the CA system that you need the blessing of at least a few people to get your content on the internet.

- Your address needs to be given to you by your ISP or ARIN.

- Major ISPs need route to your address and/or accept your BGP announcements.

- You probably need a name which is bought from a few large DNS management companies or their resellers.

- You're required to have an email address to field abuse complaints which means you most likely will be paying an email provider.

- If you're not running your own hardware you will have to pay a hosting company.

- If your site is large you'll probably need a CDN to handle the traffic of which there are only a few major players.

- Although it's a blacklist you effectively need Google's blessing to not appear on the SafeBrowsing list.

Is the CA system really that much more of a hurdle? No question it's a little scummy at times but it's cheap and relatively low maintenance.