With your IQ, you should know that nothing is backed by anything. It's the belief that Gold is worth something, it's a belief that your government will payback its debt... will they? Bitcoiners see usefulness in its protocol and applications (currency is just one of its applications). And yes: we believe that this usefulness is worth a lot. And I'm an old guy as well...
Don't worry. We are still in 1995, so have at least 5 years to go before we can compare with the dot.com bubble.
Well... we're just gnashing opinions. I think Bitcoin is STUPID, HOPEFUL, BULLSHIT. You apparently think it's more than that. We'll see. I'll admit if I'm wrong... and I don't really care, because I'm of the view that Bitcoin is "backed by nothing but sentiment" and outrageously risky... I'm not playing it... was schooled as a scientist and open to having my mind changed by future developments.
what is gold backed by? i started mining in 2011 and have pulled out many times the amount invested over the last 3 years, how much have you made with bitcoin? that's correct 0, so do stfu.
Application one, a payments system saving the poorest people in the world $74 billion dollars, a year, in fees for remittances from their families abroad. Application two, peer to peer lending to anyone in the world. Help a farmer in the third world finance his purchase of seeds. Bitcoin takes power away from centralised hierarchies and gives it to anyone on the network. The blockchain is probably the most significant invention in finance since the credit card. Watch bitcoin videos on you tube until you get it.
Bitcoin (as currency) is "backed" by usefulness: 1) for any shop in the world, it gives 3% more profit and a lot less fraud. 2) for any news-paper, micro-payments per article are possible 3) for 6 billion unbanked people, they can now enter the financial system. 4) for any guest-worker, remittance fees are reduced from 20% to zero 5) it's a rare asset and very easily transportable over the Internet. There is a LOT more usefulness in it's Protocol (not the currency), but that's a waste of my time (as you cannot grasp it anyway).