It was used correctly. What CAs wanted to sell wasn't something browsers wanted to support, and EV was the compromise. It just happens that what EV meant wasn't that useful irl.
The problem is that people wrongly believe that company names are unique. In reality you're just some paperwork and a token registration fee away from a name clash.
If anything, it's a disadvantage. People are going to be less cautious about things like the website's domain name if they see a familiar-sounding company name in that green bar. "stripe-payment.com" instead of "stripe.com"? Well, the EV says "Stripe, Inc.", so surely you're on the right website and it is totally safe to enter your credentials...
In many countries, company names are unique to that country. And combined with country TLDs controlled by the nation-state itself, it'd be possible for at least barclays.co.uk to be provably owned by the UK bank itself when a EV cert is presented by the domain.
In the US though, every state has it's own registry, and names overlap without the power of trademark protection applying to markets your company is not in.
duskwuff|2 months ago
wbl|2 months ago
crote|2 months ago
If anything, it's a disadvantage. People are going to be less cautious about things like the website's domain name if they see a familiar-sounding company name in that green bar. "stripe-payment.com" instead of "stripe.com"? Well, the EV says "Stripe, Inc.", so surely you're on the right website and it is totally safe to enter your credentials...
dismantlethesun|2 months ago
In the US though, every state has it's own registry, and names overlap without the power of trademark protection applying to markets your company is not in.