Cheng Shi: The steady development of the meta-universe will help accelerate the evolution of the digital economy

Zhongxin Jingwei March 13 Title: The steady development of the metacosm will help accelerate the evolution of the digital economy

　　Author Cheng Shi Chief Economist of ICBC International

　　"Digital economy" has always been a hot word for the two sessions, and it has been mentioned in the government work reports in the past six years. In the 2022 government work report, the "digital economy" is even more separate. The report states: "Promote the development of the digital economy. Strengthen the overall layout of digital China construction. Build digital information infrastructure, promote large-scale application of 5G, promote the digital transformation of industries, and develop smart cities and digital villages. Accelerate the development of the industrial Internet, cultivate and strengthen digital industries such as integrated circuits and artificial intelligence, and enhance the technological innovation and supply capacity of key software and hardware. Improve the governance of the digital economy, release the potential of data elements, and better empower economic development and enrich people's lives. ”

　　The development of the digital economy, the meta-universe is an unavoidable and important topic, and the deputies and members of the two sessions also have relevant suggestions and suggestions on this. According to media statistics, Wuhan, Hefei, Chengdu and other places have written the metacosmonic into the local government work report, and Zhejiang, Shanghai and other provinces and cities have also clarified the development direction of the metacosmum field in the relevant industrial planning.

　　The digital economy is accelerating its evolution, and the metacosm is the future direction of dynamic development

　　It is worth noting that the 2022 government work report does not directly mention the hot word "metacosm". In my opinion, the important reason is that although the metaverse has been hyped for half a year, it has not yet had a clear, unambiguous, and consensus definition. So I wrote an article last year called "When We Talk About metaverses, what are we talking about," and there are a thousand Hamlets in the eyes of a thousand people, and everyone understands and defines the metaverse differently. Or rather, the metacosm is such a big, large enough concept that everyone is just a peeping panther, giving a fragmented understanding of their own knowledge structure and cognitive level. I think the most explanatory definition is that the metacosm is not a static state, but a dynamic process, it is a dynamic process in which the real world and the network virtual world penetrate, merge with each other, and promote each other, and it is a process of great fusion of two parallel spaces, accompanied by inheritance and transcendence. The original meaning of the English word "Meta" is inheritance and transcendence.

　　The eight elements of hardware, connection, computing power, platform, standard, payment, content, and rules are important contents of the development of the metaverse. They are the key elements of the seamless connection between reality and virtual, and without the continuous progress of these eight elements, there will be no future for the sea of human stars.

　　Although the government report does not directly mention the metaverse, the digital economy is the future of human economic and social development, and the new crown epidemic has accelerated the evolution of human economy and society from offline mode to online mode, in this process, China's digital economy development is very fast, and the attention, layout and guidance of the metacosm are also very important.

　　For the digital economy, I would like to emphasize two points, first, the digital economy is already half of the real economy, not a virtual concept, second, the digital economy is a series of economic activities with data resources as the key production factor, modern information network as an important carrier, and the effective use of information and communication technology as an important driving force for efficiency improvement and economic structure optimization.

　　As an evolutionary direction, the metacosm points out an important direction for investment in digital economic infrastructure. The development of China's digital economy is also advancing rapidly in the direction of the eight elements of the metacosm. For example, in the direction of payment, the promotion of the digital yuan, in the direction of the platform, the emergence of domestic boutique games, in the direction of hardware, the progress of China's chip industry, AR/VR.

　　The development of China's metacosmology as a whole is in the exploratory stage, and long-term development has comparative advantages

　　At present, the development of China's metacosmology as a whole is in the exploration stage of technical preparation, but it has not yet been actually implemented. Judging from the underlying technologies such as existing AR/VR, 5G networks, brain-computer interfaces and artificial intelligence, it will take time for China's metacosm to burst substantially. The production process and demand structure of the existing physical world have not changed, and the business model of online and offline integration continues to follow the existing trend.

　　In February, the official website of the Meta-Universe Industry Committee of the China Mobile Communications Federation released the "Meta-universe Industry Self-Discipline Convention", proposing that the meta-universe business should be based on serving the real economy, resolutely resist the use of the meta-universe hot concept for capital speculation, and avoid the formation of a market bubble. This shows that the development of China's metacosmology has gone beyond the stage of concept hype and is solidly advancing to specific industrial scenarios.

　　If the metacosm is regarded as the mutual penetration and integration of the real world and the virtual world, then this is obviously an important proposition for human society, and geeks and enterprises in different countries are contributing. In this process, China's development meta-universe also has its own unique advantages: First, the advantage of human capital, Chinese smart, hard-working, and creative. Second, cultural advantages, classical IP is the key element of metaverstem penetration, and Chinese culture has a long history and will play an important role in the integration of reality and virtual. Third, infrastructure advantages, the development of China's digital economy is erupting into a huge momentum. Judging from a number of government planning documents, the number of Gigabit broadband users, the number of industrial Internet logo registrations, the number of per capita 5G base stations, and the computing power of data centers will achieve an average annual growth rate of 56%, 40%, 39% and 27%, respectively. Through government financial support, social capital will focus on research and development in new infrastructure and other fields, and the degree of infrastructure completeness will directly determine the depth of development of the meta-universe.

　　Hard-core technology is the key to the development of the meta-universe, and the orderly guidance of the government will help to achieve stability and long-term development

　　The 2022 government work report proposes: "Enhance the ability of scientific and technological innovation." Implement the ten-year plan for basic research and strengthen long-term stability support. "I feel that the key areas of the development of the meta-universe from the general direction, there is only one, that is, hardcore technology, and the breakthrough of hardcore technology is inseparable from the long-term investment in basic research." The productive forces determine the relations of production, there is no accumulation of productive forces, the metacosm is just a utopia.

　　For example, the metacosm is lexically like the Age of Steam, or the modernization of industrialization, which is a formulation of development, but without productivity, these words have no vitality. Just as Zhuge Liang in the Three Kingdoms era said that industrialization has no meaning, Zhuge Liang can produce crossbows, but the social productivity of that era cannot have any resonance with the direction of industrialization.

　　Although the idea of the metacosm has appeared in science fiction as early as 1992, it has only become a realistic theme until today, because only the current human social productivity can support the construction of the metacosm. Science and technology is the primary productive force, and the core key point of China's development of the digital economy is to continue to promote scientific and technological progress, especially the investment in basic science.

　　It is worth noting that as a new thing, in the early development process of the metaverse, there are many controversies in terms of value ethics, benefit distribution, rule making, and virtual space control. In my opinion, the guidance, planning and governance of government departments are very important for the steady development of the metacosm. Personally, I suggest that the government's guidance policy can focus on the following three aspects:

　　The first is to improve the economic incentive mechanism. Prevent the platform from monopolizing data and algorithms, and let the platform truly return revenue control to developers. The second is to protect the legal rights of individuals in the metaverse. Revisiting the boundaries of virtual crime and exploring legislative safeguards for property rights, privacy rights, and fundamental human rights in the metaverse. The third is to strengthen the supervision of virtual assets such as NFTs and promote the development of the digital yuan. It is recommended to further promote the digital yuan to ensure the stability and security of the future meta-universe payment system, and at the same time to carry out financial supervision of NFT assets built based on the alliance chain to effectively protect the rights and interests of investors. (Zhongxin Jingwei APP)

Cheng Shi

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