In a blog post on April 5, technologist Andy Baio unveiled that the Bitcoin white paper, which outlines the principles of the Bitcoin network, appears to be hidden within every modern version of Apple’s Mac operating system.
Baio came across this discovery while attempting to scan a document using a wireless scanner, which prompted a device called “Virtual Scanner II” to appear on his screen. When he changed the media type from “Photo” to “Document,” the white paper surfaced. According to Baio, there is hardly any information available about this discovery online. However, he stumbled upon a Twitter thread from November 2020 by designer Joshua Dickens, who also found the white paper. Baio’s investigation revealed that the PDF file of the Bitcoin white paper has seemingly been included with every macOS version launched since Mojave in 2018.
After discovering the Bitcoin white paper hidden in macOS, Baio developed a prompt for Terminal to make it easier for others to access it. He confirms that the file can be located on every macOS edition from Mojave (10.14.0) to the current version (Ventura), with the exception of High Sierra (10.13) or earlier.
In his blog post, Baio suggests that the white paper may have been included as a “convenient, lightweight multipage PDF for testing purposes,” rather than being intended for end users. Despite this speculation, the reason behind why the white paper was shipped with modern versions of macOS remains a mystery. As of now, Apple has not commented on Baio’s discovery.