Quote from: RobbinHoodz on December 03, 2014, 09:25:08 AM

Can anyone come out and say, ok this thing "x" is backing up the BTC?

And I don't mean any organization - just an individual?

Because how I see it, if these bitcoin is powered by consensus, then wouldn't an individual be able to empower others to back it with consensus?

Sheesh I hope I make sense Undecided

Bitcoin is not backed by anything.

'Backed up' by something means a currency can be converted to a fixed amount of the underlying asset. There is no such thing in Bitcoin. Some people say that it's backed by electricity. No, it's not. You can't convert a bitcoin to a fixed kW/h of electricity.

Backed by something also means the currency is centralized by the backer's ability to honor commitment to redeem the currency for an underlying asset. As far as I know no decentralized mechanism of redemption exists, please someone correct me if I am wrong. What can give Bitcoin and other crypto currencies value is demand for use cases. The more use cases - the higher the demand and the price.