The USD is backed by debt, which is bad because it means there are not enough dollars in existence to pay back the debt and interest, so the wealth is slowly being stolen by the bankers.
BTC is backed by work (done by computers). Money is a measure of work/value, so BTC should remain being worth the work put into it. The fact that BTC can be used to convert waste (like flare gas from oil wells) to value, makes it even more valuable.
That's not what backing is
Backing a currency means you can take that currency to the issuer and get something of real value for it
The monetary value of a currency = face value × expected redemption
So USD and JPY trade at steep discounts and EUR and BTC trade at steep premiums
Let's use the coat check desk as an analogy. There are coats, and there are claim checks for those coats.
Fractional reserve banking issues more claim checks than are "backed" by coats. We all know that's a problem.
I think you're saying, when dealing with Bitcoin, "there are no coats " -- but because the supply of claim checks is mathematically fixed, it still works as money?
Yes exactly - there are no coats, and so long as nobody in the world has any coats this system is better than other systems with claim check inflation.
But what if somebody opens a seemingly-trustworthy coat room with actual coats?
Obviously we know about this whole missing coats problem so you wouldn't want to leave your coat in there indefinitely
