Bitcoin is the first, oldest, and most secure cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin represents tokenized access to a distributed, peer-to-peer network of public nodes that relay and clear transactions. The work of mysterious and pseudonymous cypherpunk Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin brilliantly aligns the game theoretical incentives of the network participants in a way that has given rise to an always-up, uncensorable, global network of computers relaying and verifying transactions which provides humankind the ability for the first time to send any amount of value nearly instantly to anyone else, globally, without having to trust a third party with custodianship of the funds. You just have to trust that Bitcoin's openly auditable source code has no backdoors. Additionally, no one can stop the transaction, seize the money, or block the system globally, as long as the internet remains functional. Truly amazing!
Far from being "not backed by anything," it is cryptographically scarce, backed by proof of work which implies an extreme level of immutability of the blockchain record it immortalizes.
Trace Mayer talks a lot about Bitcoin's network effects which reinforce the use of Bitcoin as a store of value and medium of exchange - the two aspects of money that economists always refer to. When we look at the archeological record, it seems homosapiens have commonly chosen for money objects of transferable wealth with a few common properties, as Nick Szabo notes in Artifacts of Wealth: patterns in the evolution of collectibles and money:
Unforgeable costliness – a wide variety of objects, which we call collectibles, have as a necessary component and a secure costliness – either in search costs of collection, in manufacturing costs, or both – that serves to constraint its supply curve. This is true for collectibles as media of obligation satisfaction as well as collectibles as stores and displays of wealth.
Bitcoin actually restores this property to money! Up until the world's recent (1971-present) radical departure from anything resembling this property of money, unforgeable costliness was required of money, or at least the money had to be redeemable for an asset with this property. Precious metals used to be the only asset this is no one else's liability, now cryptocurrencies can be too.
Cypherpunks tend to be anarchists (now "cryptoanarchists", really "voluntaryists" or libertarians who are sticklers for the non-aggression principle or NAP), who tend to draw on a deep analysis of the theories behind money and its history, and as such tend to have been influenced by the Austrian School of economic thought. To those paying attention, Satoshi sends this message loudly and clearly in his ultimately deflationary monetary policy guaranteed by the emission schedule of Bitcoins determined by its consensus algorithm. The fact that the system has gained any value at all is a gigantic slap in the face of central banks worldwide, and proof that alternatives to Keynesianism are possible. Another sign of Satoshi's predilections is embedded into the genesis block of his creation that appears to be a critical commentary of the system bitcoin is meant to replace, which was structurally failing and causing economic collapse at the time Bitcoin was released in 2009.
Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies will change the world!
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