“Bitcoin is an extremely important innovation, but not in the way most people think. Bitcoin’s real innovation is a globally verifiable proof publishing at a certain time. The whole system is built on that concept and many other systems can also be built on it. The block chain nails down history, breaking Orwell’s dictum of ‘He who controls the present controls the past and he who controls the past controls the future’.”
So we enter a new age where nobody is able to manipulate the history, not unless they have more than 51% hashing power!
It's one part, but certainly not the only innovative aspect of Bitcoin. I think it's merely coincidence that the blockchain concept also allows for document timestamping. It's great to have that, but it does not make the monetary innovation of Bitcoin any less important.
In fact using the blockchain as a secure document verification system relies on the value that the monetary innovation of Bitcoin has brought. Without the monetary use case, no one had incentive to mine Bitcoin, thereby securing the blockchain.
