Metaverse in English is called metaverse .

This is a compound word: Meta (transcendence) + verse (universe), which literally means "another universe beyond the actual universe", which can be understood as a parallel universe (parallel universe).

This may be a bit abstract. Industry experts generally believe that in the era of the Internet, the PC Internet is the 1.0 era, the mobile Internet is the 2.0 era, and the "metaverse" will be the Internet 3.0 era.

The concept of the Metaverse first appeared in the 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash by American author Neil Stephenson.

The novel depicts a virtual digital world parallel to the real world - "Metaverse".

People in the real world have a virtual avatar in the "Metaverse", and people realize their will by controlling this virtual avatar.

There are two key paragraphs in this article by The Economist:

Using virtual and augmented reality, avatars and lifelike computer imagery, the metaverse will further erase the boundaries between people's online and physical lives.

例句：Through the use of virtual reality, augmented reality, virtual characters and computer-generated lifelike imagery, the Metaverse will further erase the boundaries between human life online and offline.

There are a series of very popular concepts here, virtual reality (VR, virtual reality), augmented reality (AR, augmented reality), avatar (virtual character)…

This avatar needs a good talk.

Do you still remember a phenomenal movie more than 10 years ago? Called "Avatar", the English name is Avatar.

In fact, the first translation of the film was called "God descends to the world". Later, the distributor probably didn't want to make the film look like a mythical film, and used the transliteration directly.

Avatar comes from Indian Sanskrit, and the original meaning is really "God descends to the earth", which is the flesh of the gods in the mortal world.

Think about it, everyone, when you are playing a game, is a virtual character you control your avatar in the game? You can achieve your will through this virtual character.

So this virtual character is your avatar (avatar).

Therefore, in the "metaverse", everyone will have their own avatar, and avatar is a particularly important concept.

Look at this paragraph again:

Adding to the economic efficiency could be decentralized tools such as the blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

This is actually an inversion sentence, because there is a relatively long attributive modifier after the subject. Inverting the sentence will make the sentence more harmonious. The normal word order is:

Decentralised tools such as the blockchain and cryptocurrencies could be adding to the economic efficiency.

It means "decentralized tools such as blockchain and cryptocurrencies increase economic efficiency".

If the "metaverse" is Internet 3.0, then the economic efficiency in that world is not the legal currency endorsed by the government, but the encrypted currency based on blockchain technology, such as Bitcoin.

Everyone can start to understand blockchain (blockchain) and cryptocurrency (cryptocurrency) now, and make some knowledge reserves for future trends, because they are likely to be the infrastructure of the future.

The discussion about the "metaverse" is expected to continue, just like when people discussed the Internet and mobile Internet back then.

Whether you like it or not, you may be coerced by the development of the times. In the future, our encounter may not be through the flesh, but the avatars in the virtual world.

PS: There are more wonderful interpretations of good words and sentences in this article, all of which are in the fourth quarter of the video class of Kan Ge’s foreign publications, please click to replay the class: