Fiat Currency Always Ends In Collapse

You're saying that fiat currencies based on the gold standard are "backed" and bitcoin is not?

I think you're missing something here - bitcoin IS gold, but better. It's like a gold that you can actually easily divide and transact with, and a gold that cannot as easily be seized.

When /u/DelfinGuy says Bitcoin is backed by "cryptographic proof of work", he's saying that in the same way that there is a natural limit to the amount of gold we can mine in a given year, which is the most important monetary property of gold, there is a *hard* limit to the amount of bitcoin that can be mined. Therefore bitcoin is backed/secured/kept having the same properties by cryptographic PoW. That's ultimately what gives BTC value. Without that property this whole thing is useless.

/r/Bitcoin Thread Parent Link - goldtelegraph.com