The Digital Press

WebAssembly (Wasm) has reached its tenth year, showing mixed success on the web but promising potential beyond, especially in cloud, virtualization, and secure isolation use cases. Its strengths lie in retargeting low-level languages like C++/Rust and enabling fast startup times critical for edge computing and cloud functions.

Why it matters: Wasm offers fast startup and strong isolation, enabling new cloud and edge computing models with performance advantages over traditional virtualization.

The big picture: Wasm's future lies in secure extensibility, lightweight virtualization, and component-based system composition, extending far beyond the web browser.

The stakes: Despite technical advances like WasmGC, social factors favor JavaScript/TypeScript for the web, limiting Wasm's broader adoption in user-facing applications.

Commenters say: Users highlight Wasm's key role in performance-critical app parts, note challenges with tooling and integration, and express optimism about server-side and cloud uses.