From an economic standpoint, Bitcoin is backed by generated electricity, computer hardware, and network trust. This is not dissimilar from the American Dollar, currently backed by the global energy economy and network trust. Here, the network is the US Treasury and the American public, depending on your analysis; Bitcoin's network is necessarily smaller but the opening of Futures trading suggests a vested interest in continued network growth by exchange operators. Consider the hedge on continued access to electricity and advanced technologies.

What this is worth to the consumer (is currency a product? opinions vary) will vary, but diamonds without industrial use were valued at billions of dollars only 150 years ago. Large diamonds still carry multimillion dollar values, despite that a 32-karat diamond can be grown from carbon ash in a small plasma cell for only hundreds of dollars. Maybe even less if the laboratory is powered with a renewable energy source.

The diamond was perhaps my favorite currency to study. It is an object historically backed partially by human fascination with light, partially by industrial demand, but the industrial demand was slowly diminished by the introduction of synthetic grit and stones. Despite the low cost of manufacturing a synthetic diamond for jewelry, they usually depreciate immediately--that may be a comment on the consumer's demand by those who practice valuation, or it may be that a "used" diamond is somehow worth less than a "newly discovered or grown" diamond. Impossible to say.

Good talking to you!