How fast can browsers process base64 data?

Daniel Lemire dropped a chart and the browser fandoms immediately turned it into a speed dating show for Base64 — the tech that turns files into safe text. His benchmark says Chrome/Edge/Brave sprint at encoding, Safari is the surprise champ at decoding, and Firefox/Servo… bring up the rear at a very public jog. Cue the popcorn. The hottest twist? A Googler showed up with a V8 JavaScript engine change that removes a wasteful temporary buffer, likely doubling Chrome’s decode speed. Fans are already calling it the “Lemire provoked a patch” moment. Meanwhile, a commenter discovered that JavaScript literally ignores spaces in Base64 strings, prompting “wait, why?” jokes and the classic “JS never ceases to surprise” eye-roll. Safari stans are celebrating a rare chart where their browser wins at “reading,” while Chromium loyalists flex the faster “writing” numbers and promise a decode comeback. Firefox folks are asking, why so slow? and getting only shrugs for now. One old-school dev even bragged that shoving an image as Base64 over a websocket beat their regular HTTP route back in the day — peak hacker energy. And the performance diehards are craving Lemire’s trademark SIMD (a speed trick) magic, wondering where the secret sauce is. Drama, fixes, memes — we’ve got it all, plus a very speedy future on the horizon thanks to one viral benchmark