The Ethereum Fusaka upgrade is expected to be implemented in the second half of 2025, removing the complex EVM Object Format (EOF), but it is also interpreted as the community's hesitation regarding EVM improvements after Vitalik proposed RISC-V.
Ethereum announces that the Fusaka hard fork upgrade is expected to be implemented in the third or fourth quarter of 2025. This upgrade is a major update following Ethereum's Pectra upgrade in May 2025. However, the originally planned inclusion of the EOF (EVM Object Format) upgrade has been confirmed to be removed from the upgrade by core developers due to technical complexity and risk controversies. Overall, the 2025 upgrade roadmap is seen by the community as Ethereum refocusing on scalability and overall performance enhancement, reducing the priority of usability and operational optimization in the fork.
Fusaka Upgrade: PeerDAS Extends Performance
The Fusaka hard fork includes many scalability upgrades, particularly better support for Layer 2 solutions and handling more on-chain activities. The main content of the upgrade is PeerDAS. After the Dencun hard fork, although EIP-4844 (blobs) was enabled to reduce costs, it still requires full nodes to store data completely, limiting network scalability.
PeerDAS can reduce node burden through P2P and other methods, allowing nodes to be responsible for different data to increase transmission efficiency. It can serve as a foundation for upcoming upgrades such as Danksharding, significantly testing to raise the block gas limit cap to a maximum of 120 million or 150 million, potentially lowering Layer 1 costs. It also includes EIP-7825, EIP-7907, etc., enhancing network anti-congestion and development flexibility, and stabilizing the blob transaction market.
Controversy and removal of the EOF upgrade
The originally planned inclusion of EOF (EVM Object Format) upgrade has also been canceled in this announcement. EOF is intended to improve how the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) processes smart contract bytecode, but due to technical complexity, the need for a significant upgrade of the toolchain, and unclear benefits, it has sparked controversy. Core developers ultimately considered complexity, lack of consensus, and the need to avoid delays, deciding to remove it. This decision also reflects community concerns, as most large holders lean towards conservatism.
Remove EOF and focus on other improvements. The community believes that Ethereum is currently shifting towards a more pragmatic, incremental upgrade strategy, gradually improving through frequent small updates to enhance user experience. Fusaka is a key step towards other upgrades following Pectra, embodying a progressive realization of a long-term vision.
Is the community gradually expressing support for RISC-V?
After the Ethereum Fusaka hard fork update, it may raise Gas limits, directly enhancing user experience and transaction speed as part of the upgrade strategy. However, the abandonment of complex EOF reforms also reflects the Ethereum community's hesitation towards structural reforms of the EVM. Following Vitalik's proposal for the avant-garde RISC-V revision, the current EVM smart contract format and state categorization seem unnecessary, but the specific delay can be seen as the community's expression of support for the RISC-V revision, which still requires further observation.
After the underlying hard fork upgrades such as Pectra and Fusaka, the controversy may eventually return to optimizing the execution layer of Ethereum's EVM. The question is how to address the perceived performance bottleneck of the EVM – whether to expand EOF to optimize EVM execution or to fully transition to RISC-V. Either option will be a comprehensive and massive project. In short, we will only have the opportunity to see the future direction of the Ethereum community after the Fusaka upgrade.
