Financed by defunkt[1], GitHub cofounder and ex CEO, for an undisclosed future project.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=defunkt

Also funded the Ladybird browser recently. Seems to like his web.

Not familiar with this stuff at all, is Porffor a js engine that Ladybird could end up using? Or are they still writing their own?

Or just two separate moonshots for now.

Porffor compiles the JS to WASM, so it would be kind of a waste. Though there might be no reason the two projects cannot share some logic, like parsing the JS and such. I kind of doubt this is why its being funded. It sounds like a useful project.

It can also compile to Native

If that happens I would thank defunkt so much. Great way to spend money.

You'd have to wait before using any website using js. The AOT introduces a delay. Not sure it's achievable.

I thought ladybird used WebKit?

No. Completely green field. Well, it _was_. I believe they’ve recently accepted that third party libraries will be allowed in the non-Serenity OS version.

Given that defunkt's current project is a game engine/IDE, makes sense he's interested in an ultra-fast compiler for a popular language that builds compact sub-MB native executables...