He who controls the past controls the future, warned George Orwell. This dictum is particularly true in the digital world, where history can be deleted very easily, and without anyone noticing.

Bitcoin, however, destroys all of that.

So argued Julian Assange at The Nantucket Project, where he appeared in the form of a hologram.

Assange called Bitcoin "the most interesting intellectual development on the Internet in the last five years."

Bitcoin is more than just an online currency, Assange pointed out.

The underlying technology of Bitcoin creates "proof of publication" that has the ability "to defend itself and the people who use it against the full might of a superpower," Assange said. This technology has never existed before, and it has applications far beyond the economic role that Bitcoin can play.