This technology will be here long after you and I are gone! This is worldwide and growing everyday.
When you ask your question, apply it to your favorite currency. Perhaps the US dollar?
Again you focus on the currency value and you miss the point. The encrypted blockchain hold tremendous value as we move forward. If you really care to know I suggest you do some of your own due diligence.
This technology has been looked at by the most accomplished computer scientist of our time and to a man they agree that Bitcoin the protocol is the greatest breakthrough in computer science history.
...like the equations that rated junk mortgage backed securities as AAA?
I have nothing against it, if it really is stable, but basic monetary theory teaches that for money to have intrinsic value, there most be something of value behind it.
Otherwise, it is $384 billion dollars of happy thoughts and unicorn droppings.
Just to add , this isn’t global warming science where it is driven by grant money and a bunch of hacks looking to publish BS papers. This has grown organically after the introduction of Shtoshi Nakamoto’s white paper was dropped on a forum in 2008.
And therein lies the problem. In today's computer/information age, the "greatest breakthrough in computer science history" could be replaced by an alternative technology any day.
What backs it is the worldwide, open ledger of the amount of bitcoin minted. Everyone knows what’s out there, and the exact amount.
While it is true you can lose your bitcoin, like you can lose your gold, it is impossible to PRINT bitcoin.
This is what scares the fecal matter out of governments everywhere. The end of QE as a way of monetizing your debt. Bitcoin has become the most reliable way of measuring asset inflation and deflation.