> But in fact what backs up every fiat currency is pure air. Let's say the dollar stops being the international currency, good luck explaining everyone what it's "worth" when nobody else wants it.
This is a pretty simplistic view of how things work. Even if the dollar stopped being the main reserve currency, it would still have value, just like smaller reserve currencies like the Euro and Pound, because people trust the governments to be able to pay their debts later. Until the US government can’t pay its debt and really defaults (and not the default that happens due to political stalemate) the dollar will have value.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will never have this, especially if over the span of a few days it can lose a significant chunk of its value because of a sale of a few tens of thousands of Bitcoin.
Sure, but it might be a 10th of what it is now. So in fact it's not backed by anything real.
> because people trust the governments to be able to pay their debts later.
Nobody in their right mind excepts the US to pay their debt (except through massive inflation) - the same goes for Japan and a few other countries where the debt is so massive it can never be repaid.
> especially if over the span of a few days it can lose a significant chunk of its value because of a sale of a few tens of thousands of Bitcoin.
We are still very early days in crypto. It's like saying the internet will never change anything in the mid-80s, well before the web actually started. There's very tangible reasons for crypto to exist, such as not needed any kind of official middle-man in the middle to use your cryptocurrency. The fact that it has value or not is tied to its utility on the market beyond speculation. Whether that will ever happen is a matter of how stable the fiat currencies are going to be, I'd wage.
This is a pretty simplistic view of how things work. Even if the dollar stopped being the main reserve currency, it would still have value, just like smaller reserve currencies like the Euro and Pound, because people trust the governments to be able to pay their debts later. Until the US government can’t pay its debt and really defaults (and not the default that happens due to political stalemate) the dollar will have value.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will never have this, especially if over the span of a few days it can lose a significant chunk of its value because of a sale of a few tens of thousands of Bitcoin.