[FR] - Webassembly build target support

[carbolymer]

Internal/External
Internal if an IOHK staff member.

Area
Other Any other topic (Delegation, Ranking, ...).

Describe the feature you'd like
Make cardano-api buildable into WASM.

Describe alternatives you've considered
TBD

Additional context / screenshots
TBD

Blocked on:

• [FR] - Add GHC 9.12 support #677 - GHC 9.12 WASM backend supports TemplateHaskell

[smelc]

cc @florentc

[florentc]

This is nice 👍 We might experiment with running cooked-validators in the browser in the future.

[carbolymer]

cardano-api relies on plutus, which uses template haskell heavily. This is a blocker for this issue, because TH isn't supported by GHC WASM backend yet.

Related issue and MR:

• https://gitlab.haskell.org/ghc/ghc/-/issues/24376
• https://gitlab.haskell.org/ghc/ghc/-/merge_requests/12555

If the required parts of cardano-api could be refactored out, without the dependency on Plutus TH bits, this could be achievable, but with a different scope. For this reason I'm closing this issue for now.

(explanation from @amesgen , taken from Slack )

[carbolymer]

TH support added in GHC 9.12 https://mail.haskell.org/pipermail/ghc-devs/2024-November/021821.html
Needs investigation if this issue becomes feasible now.
Blocked on:

• [FR] - Add GHC 9.12 support #677