Let’s start with the word “meta”. No, it does not mean beyond or after. “Meta” is a preposition. As someone who had the joy of studying ancient Greek, I have my Liddell & Scott handy: “Meta” Preposition, with genitive., dative., and accusative. When in the genitive it meant “in the midst of”, “among”, “between”. When in the dative, “among”, “besides”. When in the accusative, “coming into, among, after”.

That there is so much made-up crap and downright nonsense about the meaning of “meta”, it is fitting that it is also true of the “Metaverse”. And the biggest bit of it is “Decentralization”.

Why is it that there are so many people “writing” about “Web 3.0” or the “Metaverse” who are often entirely free of any experience in or real knowledge of technology, technology history, and economics? And never mind languages and linguistics.

So, here’s a start so you don’t end up looking like a fool. Read this guy:

https://marker.medium.com/the-false-promise-of-web3-7e6c1a00d4be