Co-founded by Vitalik Buterin and Xiao Feng, the initiative expands Shanhaiwoo’s three-year experiment and provides a co-framework to guide Ethereum into a long-standing application phase.
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- Vitalik Buterin and Hashkey’s Xiao Feng co-founded Ethereum Applications Guild at Token2049.
- The initiative is based on Shanhaiwoo’s three-year experiment 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 co-founders have co-started the Ethereum Application Guild (EAG) at the Token2049 Summit in Singapore.
The founders organize their initiatives as an open and conceptual framework designed to build structured collaboration mechanisms across ecosystems. 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 into an “application-driven” era.
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From Shanhaiwoo to the global Ethereum framework
According to a press release, Ethereum Applications Guild traces its roots to Shanhaiwoo, a collaborative experiment launched in 2023 under the guidance of Xiao Feng. Shanhaiwoo hosts global builders in locations focused on the interdisciplinary work of AI, crypto and public goods, from Beidav, China to Chiang Mai, Thailand.
The central insights gathered from this incubator were that Ethereum’s major deficits were no longer technical, but structural. According to the statement, participants concluded that ecosystems do not have sustainable structured co-creation mechanisms, with funding for public goods still limited, and large applications have failed to materialize.
As Shanhaiwoo acts as the main incubation site, the guild aims to guide this experimental energy towards concrete results. Developers are encouraged to use this proven collaborative environment to build, validate and advance solutions targeting real-world issues.
The launch of this initiative was marked by strong support from its founders. Feng said the guild marked “a crucial moment for the Ethereum application layer to escape from its shell.” He frames the current period with the “1995 moment” of Ethereum and the wider blockchain world, hinting at the dawn of the commercial internet and subsequent explosion of applications.
Vitalik Buterin reflected that sentiment, urging long-term builders to help them lock their work in Ethereum and push their ecosystems beyond infrastructure. For now, the initiative aims to expand invitations to the Ministry of Finance, research institutes, layer two teams and protocol foundations and build a wider bottom-up coalition.
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