Andy Baio recently made a surprising discovery that shook the crypto community. He stumbled upon the fact that the Bitcoin whitepaper has been embedded in every macOS operating system since the Mojave version. What if Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, was an Apple alum…
Bitcoin’s white paper hidden on all recent macOS operating systems
Andy Baio, former technical director of Kickstarterrecently revealed that Bitcoin’s whitepaper was hidden in every macOS operating system since the update Mojave from 2018. This revelation implies that users of the latest version of Apple’s operating system most likely possess a copy of the Bitcoin white paper without knowing it.
Baio indicated that he discovered it while trying to solve a problem with his printer. He noticed a device called ” Virtual Scanner II ” which was unfamiliar to him. Upon investigation, he discovered that the device test document was actually the Bitcoin white paper.
He also reported that the file named ” simpledoc.pdf “is hidden to some users, because its function is not clearly identified. So he shared the command line to access the white paper of Bitcoin on macOS.
open /System/Library/Image\ Capture/Devices/VirtualScanner.app/Contents/Resources/simpledoc.pdfFor those who don’t use Apple products, Baio also showed how to access the :
- Open the Finder
- Click on “Macintosh HD
- Open the folder “System→Library→Image Capture→Devices.”
- Make a control click on “VirtualScanner.app” and Package Contents”.
These procedures will take you to the Contents→Resources folder which includes simpledoc.pdf, which is the book in question.
It is possible that Baio is not the only one to have made this discovery. The blogger mentioned the case of Joshua Dickensanother user who found the document on his Mac back in November 2020.
The mystery of Bitcoin’s whitepaper on Apple’s macOS operating systems
The recent discovery of the whitepaper of Bitcoin on macOS operating systems has raised a a number of questions about the relationship between Apple and Bitcoin.
The most plausible theory is that the document was used as a test program for a peripheral device, without this being revealed to anyone. It would therefore be a ” Easter egg ” added by a developer who is a fan of cryptocurrencies.
However, this assumption has not yet been confirmed, and the person responsible for the addition has not commented on this presence.
This mystery has thus sparked a debate about Apple’s intentions in the cryptocurrency field. Although the company has never publicly expressed using the technology (directly), unlike its competitors such as Google. Some believe that the company Apple Could choose to deploy crypto strategies in the shadows.
In any case, the mystery remains, and the Bitcoin whitepaper PDF is still present on all copies of modern Macs.
As a journalist at Coinpri, I’ve been captivated by the world of bitcoin and blockchain since 2020. The decentralized aspect of Bitcoin particularly piqued my interest. Since then, I’ve been working constantly to spread my knowledge, hoping one day to see a world where everyone fully enjoys their financial freedom.
