The usual explanation is to picture Bitcoin as a Supercomputer cluster. Just search the term "supercomputer cluster" and you will find out that if you connect one desktop computer to another in a single network you will be able to create a very cheap supercomputer which is also called a cluster computer. The ./bitcoind or the bitcoin daemon turns every machine into a simple node that handles all of the copies of the blocks of the Bitcoin network if 1 million machines are using bitcoin daemon then there are 1 million copies of all the blocks from the genesis block which is actually recording all the transactions. These transaction records can be accessed readily just by using a block explorer. The miners are actually machines that verifies transactions. They are called miners since they are earning rewards from 25 Bitcoins when it started and now atleast 12.5 Bitcoins. The value of Bitcoins is actually based on the fact that it is the largest and fastest supercomputer cluster which was built not by businessmen but by the Bitcoin community. The value of Bitcoin is also backed by the unhackable/immutable public ledger that records every single transaction. The exchanges will say that the value of Bitcoin is fictional. No it  is not. Bitcoin is an infrastructure that has exchanges, miners/auditors, users, and the supercomputer cluster/nodes that is keeping the transaction 24 hours a day. 7 days a week. 365 days a year without holidays and weekend. It is the only infrastucture that can handle this amount of abuse for the past 9 years as it started in year 2009. The central banking can't transfer your funds on Saturdays and Sundays and holidays but Bitcoin doesn't refuse the challenge. Which is why it it so valuable.