Ethereum core developers have decided to remove the EVM Object Format (EOF) from the upcoming Fusaka fork, marking a significant shift in the development of the Ethereum Virtual Machine.

EOF was initially intended to address technical debt in the EVM by providing a clearer structure for contracts, improving security, and facilitating future migrations to architectures like RISC-V.

Despite the pushback, proponents like Danno Ferrin highlighted that minimal changes would be needed for top Ethereum contracts if developers opted for a less contentious version of EOF.

Community responses were mixed; some asserted that EOF could enhance layer-2 solution efficiency, while the Solidity team defended EOF, stating it has been in development for over four years and is ready for implementation.

The lack of consensus among developers ultimately led to this decision, as the focus will now shift to PeerDAS and other critical scalability improvements.

Core contributor to Vyper, Charles Cooper, argued against marketing EOF as an upgrade due to its breaking changes, while others like Michael Egorov warned that the added complexity could hinder scalability.

Concerns were raised regarding the need for fresh audits of many contracts under the new format, which would incur additional costs and time.

Opposition to EOF grew, particularly from application developers and members of the Vyper compiler team, who expressed concerns about backward compatibility and potential disruptions to existing applications.

This decision was made after a period of intense discussion and a lack of consensus among developers, despite some technical support for EOF's benefits.

The Interop Testing call, which had over 100 participants, underscored the high stakes of this decision, as project coordinator Tim Beiko emphasized the need for a high bar when shipping changes to the EVM.