Independent blogger Andy Baio recently discovered that the Bitcoin whitepaper by Satoshi Nakamoto has been embedded in Apple’s macOS since 2018. This revelation has sparked interest among cryptocurrency enthusiasts, with many users confirming that the Bitcoin whitepaper is indeed built into the system.
Upon testing, it was found that the Bitcoin whitepaper is present in macOS 13.3 as a PDF document, hidden within macOS’ Virtual Scanner II. Andy Baio revealed that Apple has been including the whitepaper since macOS 10.14.0, which was first introduced at WWDC 2018 and released in September 2018.
However, Bitcoin supporters may not have much reason to celebrate just yet. Many crypto fans on Twitter have been excited about this discovery, interpreting it as a sign that Apple supports cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoin. However, a closer look at Andy Baio’s blog post suggests that this might be a misunderstanding. It appears that Apple might have included the PDF as a sample document for the scanner function within the Virtual Scanner II.
The document is located within the Image Capture utility and is used as a sample document for a scanning device called Virtual Scanner II. By default, this virtual scanner is hidden, which is why most users have not noticed it. If users set the media type to “document” and the DPI to 72 for the Virtual Scanner II, the scanner will display a preview of the first page of the Bitcoin whitepaper.
To test this yourself, follow these steps:
Open Terminal on your Mac，Execute the following command:
open /System/Library/Image\ Capture/Devices/VirtualScanner.app/Contents/Resources/simpledoc.pdf
This will open the Bitcoin whitepaper PDF that has been embedded within Apple’s macOS since 2018.