Define Cryptocurrency?

Friend-what is cryptocurrency how do you explain it. Is it a currency?

Me--it is a platform where you store  your assets in a completely secure environment. You have full control over your assets and no one can tell you what to do with them, not a bank, government etc. In a way it is a personal bank that you control.

Friend-but there is nothing backing it so how do you put a value on it.

Me-true technically the reason why it is valuable because people think it's valuable, but there is nothing backing the us dollar either. The Fed prints money and issues into circulation, thus increasing the inflation rate. It takes the same amount of money to print $100 as it does $1, the perception of a $100 bill is greater because people think it's greater. Crypto a little different it works off supply and demand, how much energy or electricity the blockchain uses, etc there are 21million btc in circulation divisible 100 million times. If a ton of people wanted to buy a whole btc the demand for them increase while the supply decrease thus driving the price through the roof. The energy it takes also factors price, Bitcoin uses a lot of energy to mine one btc while eth  uses less. There are also outside factors that affect a price, news coverage just to name one. So in a nutshell we are putting a new definition on what is perceived to be valuable and what is not.