Web Assembly
Web3 / infrastructure applications
WebAssembly (WASM) is a low-level binary instruction format designed to run efficiently in a sandboxed virtual machine environment, serving as a portable compilation target for programming languages like C, Rust, and Go. Originally developed for web browsers, WASM has been adopted by blockchain platforms because it offers near-native performance, language flexibility, and deterministic execution across different hardware and operating systems. The format is compact, fast to parse and validate, and provides memory isolation and resource control essential for executing untrusted smart contracts in a secure manner. Example: Polkadot uses WebAssembly as the execution environment for parachain validation functions, and Cosmwasm enables Cosmos-based blockchains to run WASM smart contracts written in Rust, making them more efficient than traditional EVM contracts. Why it matters for blockchain infrastructure: WASM enables blockchain platforms to support multiple programming languages and achieve better performance and security than EVM, reducing gas costs and enabling more complex smart contract logic to execute efficiently.
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