Buterin partners with HashKey’s Xiao Feng on Ethereum Applications Guild

Co-founded by Vitalik Buterin and Xiao Feng, the initiative expands on Shanhaiwoo’s three-year experiment, offering a collaborative framework to drive Ethereum into its long-promised application phase.

According to a press release dated Oct. 2, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and HashKey Group CEO Dr. Xiao Feng jointly initiated the Ethereum Applications Guild (EAG) during the Token2049 summit in Singapore.

The founders frame the initiative as an open, conceptual framework designed to forge a structured collaboration mechanism across the ecosystem. Notably, its goal is to accelerate the deployment of native Ethereum projects, aiming to pivot the entire network from an “infrastructure-dominated” phase into an “application-driven” era.

From Shanhaiwoo to a global Ethereum framework

According to the press release, the Ethereum Applications Guild traces its roots back to Shanhaiwoo, a collaborative experiment launched in 2023 under Xiao Feng’s guidance. Shanhaiwoo has hosted global builders in locations from Beidahu, China, to Chiang Mai, Thailand, focusing on cross-disciplinary work in AI, crypto, and public goods.

The central insight gleaned from this incubator was that Ethereum’s primary deficit is no longer technological, but structural. Per the statement, participants concluded the ecosystem lacks a sustainable, structured co-creation mechanism, with public goods funding still limited and large-scale applications failing to materialize.

With Shanhaiwoo serving as its primary incubation ground, the guild aims to channel this experimental energy toward concrete outcomes. It encourages developers to use this proven collaborative environment to build, validate, and advance solutions targeting real-world problems.

The initiative’s launch was marked by strong endorsements from its founders. Feng said the guild marked a “pivotal moment for the application layer of Ethereum breaking out of its shell.” He framed the current period as the “1995 moment” for Ethereum and the broader blockchain world, alluding to the dawn of the commercial internet and the application explosion that followed.

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 has extended invitations to treasury groups, research institutions, Layer 2 teams and protocol foundations, with the aim of building a broad, bottom-up coalition.