Apple Has Included Bitcoin Whitepaper in Every Version of macOS Since 2018

[MacRumors]

In every copy of macOS that has shipped since 2018, Apple has included the original Bitcoin whitepaper by Satoshi Nakamoto, and no-one seems to know why.

The baffling discovery (or rediscovery - see below) was recently made by developer and waxy.org writer Andy Baio, who stumbled upon the PDF document while trying to fix a problem with his printer.

Anyone with a Mac running macOS Mojave or later can see the PDF for themselves by typing the following command into Terminal:

open /System/Library/Image\ Capture/Devices/VirtualScanner.app/Contents/Resources/simpledoc.pdf

If you're running macOS 10.14 or later, the 184 KB Bitcoin PDF should immediately open in Preview.

The document can also be located via Finder: Navigate to Macintosh HD -> System -> Library -> Image Capture -> Devices, then open the Contents -> Resources folder. The whitepaper titled "simpledoc.pdf" should be in there.

Baio found that in the macOS Image Capture utility, the Bitcoin whitepaper is used as a sample document for a device called "Virtual Scanner II," which may or may not power Apple's Import from iPhone feature, and is either hidden or not installed for everyone by default.

Baio later discovered that he wasn't the first person to find the Bitcoin document or "Virtual Scanner II." An Apple Community post from 2021 queries its existence in macOS, in addition to a photo taken of a sign at San Francisco Bay's Treasure Island, after designer Joshua Dickens unearthed them in 2020.

It's not known why Apple would choose as a sample document Nakamoto's Bitcoin whitepaper. There has been widespread speculation about the identity of the presumed pseudonymous Bitcoin developer, which is only likely to add to the intrigue. What "Virtual Scanner II" refers to also remains unclear.

According to a source who spoke to Baio, someone filed the Bitcoin paper with Apple as an issue nearly a year ago, and assigned it to the same engineer who put the PDF there in the first place, but that person hasn't taken action or commented on the issue since.

The mystery continues.

Article Link: Apple Has Included Bitcoin Whitepaper in Every Version of macOS Since 2018

 

[CChrisG]

This was left by a developer for fun, I wouldn't read too much into it.

 

[timmyh]

This was left by a developer for fun, I wouldn't read too much into it.

Spoilsport! 😛

 

[breather]

I´m so very tired of Crypto

Edit
Looks like we found some crypto "investors"...

 

[japanime]

Is the bottom of the PDF signed, "All your bitcoin are belong to us"?

 

[senttoschool]

This was left by a developer for fun, I wouldn't read too much into it.

Developer should be fired for leaving this easter egg.

 

[Lerenard3000]

This might be the best lead to satoshi oh my god, if Steve Jobs is satoshi!!! 😂

 

[Nicole1980]

Cue the conspiracy theories. Whenever ANYTHING happens these days it turns into a ******** of asinine people online claiming to know the REAL reason some random thing actually happened.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Is the bottom of the PDF signed, "All your bitcoin are belong to us"?

“…All of your Bitcoin will belong to us. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.”

 

[klasma]

This might be the best lead to satoshi oh my god, if Steve Jobs is satoshi!!! 😂

He would have named it iCoin.

 

[daanodinot]

Kind of weird that this guy discovered it 2.5 years ago, but no one picked it up until now.

 

[slb]

I bet it's just leftover test data.

 

[techpr]

If you want to LEARN the basic FUNDAMENTALS of the Bitcoin technology, please READ this ENTIRE PDF.

 

[JokoWidodo]

i knew it. Steve Jobs is satoshi nakamoto

 

[com.B]

Developer should be fired for leaving this easter egg.

Because that philosophy has worked out so well for the marketshare of Windows in the past couple years.

 

[rp2011]

I barely trust something that has entire nations, lawyers, retirement funds, everyday folks, and lobbyists depending on and fight over, that something that relies on the preposterous premise of "mining" is the most obvious recipe for financial disaster that anyone could ever come up with.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Ohhhh I don’t like where this is going. Please keep cryptocrap off of my Mac

EDIT: the coiners are disliking me lmao

 

[DFZD]

I read it as Bitcoin Wallpaper and thought wow that would be very cool.. an Apple Bitcoin Wallpaper..

So I searched on google and found this and everything makes sense now.

 

[jafd]

So maybe this is why macOS is so dog-slow and has all those background processes eating up your CPU — those processes really are bitcoin miners in disguise?

 

[Nozuka]

This is obviously just Apple trying to fill our SSD faster, to make us buy a bigger one!!!


/s

 

[entropys]

Developer should be fired for leaving this easter egg.

Or, we could buy him or her a beer.

 

[purplerainpurplerain]

Is the bottom of the PDF signed, "All your bitcoin are belong to us"?

About 80% of the Bitcoin supply belongs to something like 100 people most of whom are already rich and know each other and rig the market and control the prices with algorithmic trading bots.

Apparently the inventors of bitcoin were friends of Epstein. I read on a forum their names are allegedly Castrounis (lead), Wexler, Rustow (advisor), Xu (advisor) and maybe some others connected to internet gambling and dark funds. This isn’t even a secret to insiders. The news just don’t want to talk about it because the editors are sore bagholders so editors shut investigations down.

 

[krewger]

I love it when in life someone makes a quick decision over a simple task that did no harm, and then it becomes a societal point of interest consuming a huge focus by multiple individuals exerting multitudes more of brain power than ever was given in the initial decision that did no harm.

 

[purplerainpurplerain]

This was left by a developer for fun, I wouldn't read too much into it.

I’ll delete the stupid document from the hidden folder in case it asks for ransoms 😝

 

[mdnz]

I love it when in life someone makes a quick decision over a simple task that did no harm, and then it becomes a societal point of interest consuming a huge focus by multiple individuals exerting multitudes more of brain power than ever was given in the initial decision that did no harm.

That's what articles are about nowadays - people who have no idea what they're talking about but have to get their opinion known while the effort could be put into something else. Me included