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Can't you just use a statically linked mold binary for the initial bootstrap, just like you use some kind of pre-existing, basic C compiler?

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You could. But now you are trusting an entirely new toolchain that can build the Rust-based linker, even if it is statically linked. This toolchain is much larger than a comparatively small and much more easily understood C bootstrap toolchain.

This effectively triples or quadruples (maybe even more) the amount of code you need to trust for the cold bootstrap.

Why do you keep saying C? Mold was C++ with some dependencies like TBB or zstd.

Too many years at Google where the two terms are most often used interchangeably; which is imprecise, but most of the time it doesn't matter. Forgive me for being imprecise here.

The fact remains that rust adds yet another toolchain to the boot process that needs trust and verification.

Very basic: https://github.com/oriansj/stage0

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