The recent update to Arbitrum features the Stylus VM upgrade, boasting several enhancements:

• Expanded language support
• Reduced costs and memory usage
• Customizable pre-compilers
• EVM compatibility

These improvements stem from integrating WASM, renowned for its numerous benefits within cloud-native environments. Further details on WASM's role will be covered in subsequent sections.

Pioneers

Arbitrum has introduced WASM to its chain, but it's not the inaugural platform to do so. Polkadot previously allowed the creation of WASM smart contracts. It offers two languages for this: an assembly script similar to an embedded DSL and a Rust-inspired language called ink!.

Similarly, Cosmos utilizes CosmWasm for its smart contract execution. Developers can craft smart contracts using Rust here.

Before exploring the affinity blockchain has for WASM, let's review Cosmos and Polkadot's rationale for choosing WASM.

Cosmos touts WASM for these advantages:

• Rust library compatibility
• A broad developer community
• Enhanced security, including reentrancy attack prevention
• Simplified testing procedures
• Superior performance

Polkadot's WASM runtime showcases features like:

• Exceptional performance
• EVM interoperability