INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Mozilla along with its partners Intel, Red Hat and Fastly have announced the launch of a new open-source group called the Bytecode Alliance
which will focus on creating secure new software foundations while building on standards such as WebAssembly and WebAssembly System
Interface (WASI).WebAssembly is an open standard that allows browsers to execute compiled programs directly
This means that developers can write an application in C, C++ and Rust and have it run at native speed within a browser as opposed to using
JavaScript, which typically takes longer to execute.All major browser engines currently support WebAssembly and some companies have even
begun to use it in production
However, the barrier to entry still remains high for most developers.According to its new website, the mission of the Bytecode Alliance is
to establish “a capable, secure platform that allows application developers and service providers to confidently run untrusted code, on
any infrastructure, for any operating system or device, leveraging decades of experience doing so inside web browsers”.As WebAssembly
allows untrusted code components to interact with trusted code inside of a sandboxed environment, the open standard has a wide variety of
potential use cases outside of the browser and this is why Mozilla and its partners formed the ByteCode Alliance.The founding members are
also contributing code to the new alliance including the Wasmtime, Lucet and WebAssembly Micro Runtime (WAMR) as well as the runtime
components Cranelift and Wasi common.Distinguished engineer at Mozilla and co-creator of WebAssembly, Luke Wagner explained the decision to
expand WebAssembly beyond browsers in a blog post, saying:“WebAssembly is changing the web, but we believe WebAssembly can play an even
bigger role in the software ecosystem as it continues to expand beyond browsers
This is a unique moment in time at the dawn of a new technology, where we have the opportunity to fix what’s broken and build new,
secure-by-default foundations for native development that are portable and scalable
But we need to take deliberate, cross-industry action to ensure this happens in the right way
Together with our partners in the Bytecode Alliance, Mozilla is building these new secure foundations—for everything from small, embedded
devices to large, computing clouds.”Via TechCrunch
