Maybe it wasnt the first to come up with this kind of idea;
...but it was the first to come up with a
solution! ☞
☞That is to say, Bitcoin might not be the first digital currency but it's the first cryptocurrency (ie. the first decentralized, counterfeit-proof digital currency).
It's easy to forget these days how big of a deal this was, but there's no precedent for this kind of money before Bitcoin.