> What is the backing of the US dollar at this point asides from threat of violence against challengers ?

That is part of the backing of any government issued currency and it's not a bad one. Usually currencies don't collapse or hyperinflate. If society breaks down locally the question is whether some crypto asset or the thing backed by guns will prevail in the mid term.

In war time: I'm betting on the people with the tanks.

>What is the backing of the US dollar at this point asides from threat of violence against challengers ?

That's pretty much as strong as it gets. I joke all the time that at some point someone will found a Bitcoin nation with its own military.

Aside from the very thing that is the foundation of all large societies, you mean?

What does it need other than that?

The backing of a national currency is productive capacity of that nation and the control of the government over that capacity.

This is the closest thing to correct, more specifically USD is backed by some real-estate and mostly TBill which is the government's ability to pay it's debt.

There's some sketchiness there, but generally it works, and of course, there are externalities like petrodollar but generally it's a sound currency.

It's not a super store of value, but it's not meant to be, there are other assets for that.

BTC is about as financially relevant as a GameStop mob, so if we're going to understand it, its' for the populist psychology, not for anything else.

Here is the 'backing':

USD [1]

Canadian Dollar [2]

Euro [3]

Bitcoin -> nothing.

[1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WALCL [2] https://www.bankofcanada.ca/research/ [3] https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/annual/balance/html/index.en.h...