the energy backing up gold is what has been used to extract it

if you made coins out of fired clay, they would have no value

If on the other hand you have a ming vase, it might be worth $ millions, but that actual cash remains units of energy that have been previously traded somewhere back down the line to enable you to buy the vase. (it remains a lump of fired clay until somene else buys it from you and you get cash/energy flowing again)

My point is, that we live in an energy economy, we do not live in a money economy — -no matter how money is represented.

If bitcoin is bid up to some kind of infinity, that bid does not increase the energy that must underpin it.

If it was real, then governments would produce bitcoin and pay everybody’s wages with it and get rid of money altogether.

You only have to ask yourself if this is likely, to provide the answer about the real value of crypto currency