The US dollar is also backed by virtually nothing, just the faith that its worth a dollar and that the fed can pay. Id highly recommend anyone to get in for now, take a chance with 100, 1000, 10000 and see how it pays off. As it goes with any investments, invest only what you can afford to lose. This is like the internet before everyone know what it was all about. I firmly believe its going to be everywhere. Also the big boys are involved, the stock market is trading bitcoin futures, and there is sepculation that they are responsible for the massive swings that have been seen in the past two weeks. Also Bitcoin is trading at 15.5k right now, which is up 6k since the beginning of the month, the swings are typical of this volatile time, but its always big gains if you hold out for a while and pay attention. When I started buying in, May of this year, Bit was at 1500, Ether was 70, and Litecoin was roughly 15.