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 on October 2, 2025. This open, conceptual framework aims to forge structured collaboration across the Ethereum ecosystem, building on the three-year Shanhaiwoo experiment launched in 2023 under Xiao Feng's guidance.
The guild's primary goal is to pivot Ethereum from an infrastructure-dominated phase to an application-driven era, accelerating the deployment of native projects. Shanhaiwoo, which hosted global builders in locations like Beidahu, China, and Chiang Mai, Thailand, focused on cross-disciplinary work in AI, crypto, and public goods. Insights revealed that Ethereum's key deficit is structural, lacking sustainable co-creation mechanisms and adequate public goods funding.
Xiao Feng described the launch as a pivotal moment for the application layer of Ethereum breaking out of its shell, comparing it to the 1995 moment of the commercial internet. Buterin echoed this, urging long-term builders to anchor their work in Ethereum. The initiative has extended invitations to treasury groups, research institutions, Layer 2 teams, and protocol foundations to form a broad, bottom-up coalition.