Bitcoin is not backed by anything.

The beauty of Bitcoin: No central party can unilaterally print unlimited money, devaluing its own currency in the trillions this year to combat COVID. Regardless of this point, the only true value of money is the trust that its users place in it.

Bitcoin is not backed by anything

This is the most common Bitcoin criticism I hear. While Bitcoin was designed as a peer-to-peer e-cash, it lacks the backing of a government, central bank, or FDIC insurance.

Simply put, the US Dollar is the global reserve currency because it is the most trusted form of currency at the moment. At the end of the day, every dollar is nothing more than a promissory note, or debt, that we rely on the central bank to back. Aside from this promise, there is nothing backing today's fiat dollar other than the paper it is printed on, but we still trust the government's backing of it.

Bitcoin is backed by a similar level of trust, but in a very different way. Bitcoin and its value are primarily supported by two reliable sources: mathematical code and the billions of dollars invested in Bitcoin mining to support and secure the network.

I won't go into detail because the code, application of economic game theory, and mining are all covered in my colleague's Bitcoin facts blog, but combining these effects creates a safe, secure, and trusted store of value, unit of account, and medium of exchange, also known as Money.

Bitcoin enthusiasts will tell you that, like gold, the value of Bitcoin stems from scarcity—computer Bitcoin's algorithm mandates a fixed cap of 21 million digital coins (nearly 19 million have been created so far). It has no intrinsic value and is not supported by  anything. Unlike fiat, Bitcoin is a highly trusted form of global money because it is the world's hardest form of money, which means it is impossible for any party to unilaterally print more of it.

Bitcoin is a more trusted alternative form of money for millions around the world, backed by the billions spent by decentralized Bitcoin mining groups on operational and capital expenditures to maintain the network.