​A sign of good health for Web3.

Here's another piece of trivia for you:

Did you know Wells Fargo, one of the world's largest banks, was born out of the Californian Gold Rush?

But they didn't make their money after striking gold. Instead they made it by offering express shipping services to miners.

And strangely enough, more money was made by those providing tools and services to the local mining community, than the miners themselves.

This historical footnote coined the term 'pick-and-shovel play,' which is a strategy of investing your time and energy into serving those trying to find/create the 'new shiny thing.'

(The email sending service we're writing this on is a pick-and-shovel play).

What does this have to do with crypto? It looks like the picks and shovels are starting to take over Web3...

Trading volume for Web3 domain names (that double as a user's Web3 identity, username and wallet addresses) have overtaken digital art on OpenSea.

ENS (the folks that supply the world with .eth domain names) have recently taken out Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and their Otherside metaverse land deeds, to claim the top spot.

(ENS = picks-and-shovels, BAYC / Otherside = 'new shiny thing').

Here's the takeaway:

More and more people are starting to see Web3 ubiquity as a sure thing, and they want to lock in their preferred usernames before they're taken.

This increased interest is a very healthy sign for Web3.