Apple Mysteriously Hiding Crucial Crypto Document In Every Modern macOS Copy Since 2018

Tech giant Apple hasn't said anything about crypto so far but apparently, it has been hiding an important cryptocurrency document in every modern macOS copy since 2018.

Titled "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System," the Bitcoin whitepaper is the original thesis penned by Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of the world's first-ever digital asset and the world's biggest crypto asset by market capitalization, and sets the basic structure of the Bitcoin network.

The rediscovery of the original Bitcoin whitepaper on macOS was made by Andy Baio, an American technologist, internet entrepreneur and blogger, who detailed how he unearthed it in a new blog post.

"While trying to fix my printer today, I discovered that a PDF copy of Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin whitepaper apparently shipped with every copy of macOS since Mojave in 2018," Baio said, adding that he sought his friends' help to confirm his discovery and noted that each of them confirmed it.

"I've asked over a dozen Mac-using friends to confirm, and it was there for every one of them. The file is found in every version of macOS from Mojave (10.14.0) to the current version, Ventura (13.3), but isn't in High Sierra (10.13) or earlier," he added.

Baio also encouraged others to see for themself the original Bitcoin whitepaper and provided instruction and the command, "open /System/Library/Image Capture/Devices/VirtualScanner.app/Contents/Resources/simpledoc.pdf" to access it, noting that those who are using "macOS 10.14 or later, the Bitcoin PDF should immediately open in Preview."

"(If you're not comfortable with Terminal, open Finder and click on Macintosh HD, then open the System→Library→Image Capture→Devices folder. Control-click on VirtualScanner.app and Show Package Contents, open the Contents→Resources folder inside, then open simpledoc.pdf.)," he further said.

The presence of the original Bitcoin whitepaper in macOS intrigued many, especially the crypto community, triggering a plethora of speculations and conspiracy theories and a lot of questions.

"Of all the documents in the world, why was the Bitcoin whitepaper chosen?" Baio asked, adding, "Is there a secret Bitcoin maxi working at Apple?"

In his blog post, he further said, "maybe it was just a convenient, lightweight multipage PDF for testing purposes, never meant to be seen by end users."

It is worth noting that this is not the first time that the original Bitcoin whitepaper was discovered in Apple's macOS.

In April 2021, a user by the name of bernd178 shared on the MacOS Community Forum their discovery within the Image Capture Utility function Virtual Scanner II of the nondescript image of a bay in San Francisco and a PDF copy of the Bitcoin whitepaper.

"Weirdly, there is also a PDF with the original Bitcoin white paper from Satoshi Nakamoto in the VirtualScanner.app Package Content," the user posted in the forum in 2021.