[tinco]

All WebAssembly does is further obfuscate the code that runs in your browser. Have you ever tried to reverse-engineer Gmail or any modern web app? It's already basically impossible.

A part of the web has simply become an application distribution system. That's not necessarily a bad thing, many other important websites are still very much open and accessible, like Wikipedia for example.

The web just became bigger than it was before 2001.

[cyborgx7]

This is a further step in the reduction of user control, the thing that I think made the web so successful in the first place. I suspect it will kill the web, but it will at least make it unacceptable for me. I would like to find and support the replacement as soon as possible.

[pjmlp]

The user never was in control, given that the majority of the logic runs on a server that the user never sees or has access to.