netstack.fm WebAssembly and Rust in Practice, A Conversation with Alex Crichton
Jan 27, 2026
01:57:09
episode 24: WebAssembly and Rust in Practice, A Conversation with Alex Crichton.
In this episode we sit down with Alex Crichton to talk about WebAssembly and Rust in practice. We discuss how Wasm grew beyond the browser into a serious runtime for servers and plugins, and why Rust fits so well in this space.
We also explore WASI, the component model, and lessons from building Wasmtime, covering performance, security, and what it takes to run Wasm in production.
Learn more:
- https://github.com/alexcrichton — Alex Crichtton on GitHub
- https://webassembly.org/ — WebAssembly overview and introduction
- https://wasi.dev/ — WASI introduction and goals
- https://component-model.bytecodealliance.org/ — WebAssembly component model documentation
- https://bytecodealliance.org/ — Bytecode Alliance home page
- https://wasmtime.dev/ — Wasmtime runtime home page
- https://docs.wasmtime.dev/ — Wasmtime documentation
- https://docs.rs/wasmtime/latest/wasmtime/ — Wasmtime Rust API documentation
- https://github.com/bytecodealliance/wasmtime — Wasmtime source code
- https://github.com/bytecodealliance/wasm-tools — wasm tools used throughout the Wasmtime ecosystem
- https://github.com/bytecodealliance/wit-bindgen/ — wit bindgen tooling for the component model
- https://webassembly.github.io/spec/ — WebAssembly specification rendering
- https://github.com/WebAssembly/WASI — WASI specification repository
- https://github.com/WebAssembly/proposals/ — Active WebAssembly proposals
- https://bytecodealliance.org/articles/ — Bytecode Alliance blog and technical articles
Rama
If you like this podcast you might also like our modular network framework in Rust: https://ramaproxy.org
Chapters
- 00:00 Intro
- 00:42 Introduction to Alex Crichton and His Journey
- 04:14 Understanding WebAssembly: Basics and Benefits
- 07:35 Challenges of WebAssembly and DOM Access
- 16:29 Exploring WASI: The WebAssembly System Interface
- 31:11 The Relationship Between WebAssembly and WASI
- 34:43 Understanding WebAssembly Instructions
- 37:09 The Role of Compilers in WebAssembly
- 40:07 Exploring Roto and WebAssembly Integration
- 42:19 Garbage Collection in WebAssembly
- 44:17 Dynamic Libraries and Code Sharing in WebAssembly
- 45:49 Core WebAssembly and Its Layers
- 48:39 The Component Model's Evolution
- 51:25 String Handling in WebAssembly
- 54:26 Simplifying WebAssembly for Developers
- 55:30 Specifications and Documentation in WebAssembly
- 57:31 Asynchronous Support in the Component Model
- 01:01:29 Exploring WASI P3 and Async Support
- 01:10:36 More about the Component Model
- 01:22:39 The Role of the Bytecode Alliance
- 01:26:57 Akamai's Interest in WebAssembly
- 01:31:29 Exploring WebAssembly Use Cases
- 01:37:27 Future of WasmTime Development
- 01:40:24 Understanding WasmTime's Architecture
- 01:44:34 Getting Started with WasmTime
- 01:51:19 Security and Testing in WasmTime
- 01:56:11 Outro
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Music for this episode was composed by Dj Mailbox. Listen to his music at https://on.soundcloud.com/4MRyPSNj8FZoVGpytj