It is backed by the goods and services that make up US economy. If that fails , the currency will fail.
bitcoin will fail when enough people lose the belief it has value.

MO

I invested early and im glad i did , i spent $300 a piece and bought 5 so my $1500 investment as of today is worth $55000 so far. Each bitcoin is selling for 11k. Etherium is also a good investment. Buy in while you can , theyre only $400 a piece

Just read an article that several countries treasuries were planning to crack down on bitcoin as they claim it's used to launder money. If they do I see it's value plummeting.

WOW! At some point you better take the money and run. That's a heck of a return on a not so guaranteed bet.

A lot of people touched on reasons for it to be "Valued" so high. One of the biggest reasons, people are willing to pay for it. It also helps that Japan accepts it as legal currency and they are one of the larger economies. Another possible reason is the Growth of Blockchain, and bitcoin is basically the Blockchain currency. Do some research into blockchain in conjunction with bitcoin research. It might help you understand whats going on a little more

So is there partial bitcoins? What if I don't want $11k worth of drugs at one time? Can I spend like a 10% bitcoin?

Haha, yes. Bitcoins can be broken up into very very small fractions... So really there is like infinite amount of payments that can be made with bitcoin

The whole idea is genius actually. The creator set out to essentially make digital gold. It has to be "mined" just like real gold has to be mined. Instead of burning diesel fuel though it's electricity. Each coin that gets mined takes more and more computing power to mine it. So essentially it's intrinsic value comes through the difficulty and expense of "mining" it. The big advantage it has over real gold, of course, is that it can easily broke down and transferred digitally instantaneously all over the world.

The other big thing is block chain technology. This concept is difficult to explain, but it makes it essentially impossible to hack the system. If you want to steal money from JP Morgan, all you have to do is hack their central computer and change numbers. If you wanted to hack the bitcoin system you'd have to simultaneously hack hundreds of thousands of computers all across the globe. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it would be darn close.

Anyway,I missed the boat on the whole thing. I don't own any and don't plan on owning any. I think it's in bubble territory for the time being. I'm also very upset the winklevoss twins got in on this early. Man I hate those guys. None-the-less I think some version of bitcoin or block chain is likely the future of most monetary systems.

After just now, reading the rest of this topic, I went back and asked my friend if he was serious, or was it a joke, about bitcoin being "backed by gold in the Middle East."

He replied that he was serious, but he was mistaken.

I do not know anything about bitcoin. However, I still do see how many, many cyberspace wealth is still built on a belief system, but can build real assets once it buys tangible, real assets, like real estate, buildings, etc.

Have a good one. I'll continue to read this topic to learn more about bitcoin.

One thing is for sure, lately I've read many times, "If you only would have invested in bitcoin 8 years ago, then..."

Addendum: Here's one for you, maybe someone knows the answer.

--Did one man start the Texas Fishing Forum, and he is making money off the ads that appear on the sides of our screens? If so, does the Texas Fishing Forum website have real value, real assets, or is it just a place Texas dudes come and visit daily, all day, which makes him money due to the numbers of companies who buy ads for our eyes to see. If for some reason, most fishermen in Texas quit using this site daily, then over time the companies will pull the ads, and the "value" of this site will dwindle.
I'm curious now, how old is this site, who started it? Does it have a Wikipedia page? I'm about to look.

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A wealth of information on this site regarding Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Its a news feed and educational site.. https://www.coindesk.com/

you can buy $20 if you want and you never know whats worth $20 today could be worth $40 tomorrow could eventually be worth hundreds or thousands.

Go read about tulips in Europe in the early 1600s...... economies are fickle, and mass delusion can result from the occasional black swan....

I threw some money in it. I considerate it gambling money...not investment money.

Who all owns some bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a must on the dark web.