In an upcoming software update, the Bitcoin whitepaper hidden in MacOS since 2017 will reportedly be removed.
This news was reported by 9to5Mac, a news site that covers Apple-related news and information. The whitepaper’s existence was discovered in April 2021 by a MacOS community forum user named bernd178, who noticed an inactive feature called “Virtual Scanner II” inside the “Image Capture Utility” on the system. Upon exploring this feature, bernd178 found an image of the San Francisco Bay and a PDF of the Bitcoin whitepaper.
The discovery of the whitepaper in MacOS generated a lot of interest within the crypto community, with blogger Andy Baio featuring the news on his blog. However, when 9to5Mac checked the beta version of MacOS 13.4, they found that the file was not present. Furthermore, Virtual Scanner II has been completely removed from the beta version of MacOS.
While the removal of the whitepaper from MacOS may seem like a small development, it highlights the ongoing debate surrounding the role of cryptocurrencies in mainstream society. The fact that Apple initially included the whitepaper in its operating system could be seen as a recognition of the importance of Bitcoin and the underlying blockchain technology. However, the subsequent removal of the file suggests that the company may be reassessing its stance on cryptocurrencies.