The initiative, co-founded by Vitalik Buterin and Xiao Feng, expands on Shanghaiwoo's three-year experiment and provides a collaborative framework to take Ethereum into its long-term application phase.
summary
- Vitalik Buterin and Hashkey’s Xiao Feng co-founded Ethereum Applications Guild with Token2049.
- The initiative builds on three years of experimentation with Shanghaiwoo and focuses on structured collaboration across Ethereum.
According to a press release dated October 2, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Hashkey Group CEO Dr. Xiao Feng jointly launched the Ethereum Application Guild (EAG) at the Token2049 Summit in Singapore.
The founders structure the initiative as an open, conceptual framework designed to forge structured collaboration mechanisms across the ecosystem. In particular, its goal is to accelerate the deployment of native Ethereum projects with the aim of pivoting the entire network from an “infrastructure-dominated” phase to an “application-driven” era.
You may also like: Coinbase Tests USDC Aid Delivery for Low-Income New Yorkers – Does It Work?
From Shanhaiwoo to the global Ethereum framework
According to a press release, the Ethereum Applications Guild traces its roots to Shanghaiwoo, a collaborative experiment launched in 2023 under the leadership of Xiao Feng. Shanhaiwoo hosts global builders in locations from Beydav, China to Chiang Mai, Thailand focused on interdisciplinary work in AI, crypto, and public goods.
The central insight gleaned from this incubator was that Ethereum's primary deficit is no longer technical, but structural. According to the statement, the participants concluded that the ecosystem lacks sustainable structured co-creation mechanisms, the financing of public goods is still limited and large-scale applications fail to materialize.
With Shanhaiwoo serving as a major incubation site, the guild aims to channel this experimental energy towards concrete results. We encourage developers to use this proven collaborative environment to build, validate, and advance solutions targeting real-world problems.
The launch of this initiative was marked by strong support from the founders. Feng said the guild marked a “pivotal moment for Ethereum's application layer to break out of its shell.” He frames the current period as a “1995 moment” for Ethereum and the wider blockchain world, alluding to the dawn of the commercial internet and the subsequent explosion of applications.
Vitalik Buterin echoed that sentiment, urging long-term builders to anchor their work in Ethereum and help push the ecosystem beyond infrastructure. For now, the initiative aims to build a broad bottom-up coalition, extending invitations to Treasury, research institutions, layer 2 teams, and protocol fundamentals.
read more: CME Group to provide 24/7 cryptocurrency trading in 2026