Apple hides Bitcoin Whitepaper on every MacBook, why?

by James · April 6, 2023

Is tech giant Apple a secret supporter of Bitcoin, or did an employee act on their own? This is the question currently being asked by the Bitcoin community after independent blogger Andy Baio revealed in a post that the Bitcoin Whitepaper is hidden in every modern copy of macOS.

As Baio explains, a copy of the BTC whitepaper has been included since version 10.14.0 and has not been removed since. It is included in every version of macOS from Mojave (10.14.0), released in September 2018, to the current version, but not High Sierra (10.13) or earlier.

The blogger became aware of the Bitcoin Whitepaper quite by accident. “While trying to fix my printer today, I discovered that a PDF copy of Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin whitepaper,” Baio said, explaining that the file is used in the Image Capture tool as a sample document for a device called “Virtual Scanner II.” which are either hidden or not installed by default for everyone.

If one knows where it is hidden, the BTC whitepaper is easy to find. Mac users just need to type the following command in the terminal:

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

If users are running macOS 10.14 or higher, the Bitcoin Whitepaper will open in preview immediately. Users who don’t know how to use a command line can use the Finder and click through, Baio explained:

Click Macintosh HD, and then open the System → Library → Capture → Devices folder. Control-click VirtualScanner.app and Show Package Contents, open the Contents → Resources folder inside, and then open simpledoc.pdf.

Why is the Bitcoin Whitepaper hidden in macOS?

As Baio writes, it is not clear why the BTC whitepaper was chosen from all the documents in the world. “Is There a Secret Bitcoin Max Working at Apple?” or was it even a directive from the top? “There is practically nothing about it on the Internet,” states the blogger, who simply notes:

The file name is “simpledoc.pdf” and it is only 184 KB. Perhaps it was just a convenient, lightweight multi-page PDF for testing purposes, never meant to be seen by end users.

Baio received an anonymous tip from an employee who revealed that someone internally reported the problem almost a year ago. Notably, the problem was reportedly reported to the same engineer who put the PDF there in the first place, and that person hasn’t done anything or commented since.

Notably, Apple CEO Tim Cook came out as a Bitcoin supporter in November 2021. The CEO of the world’s second most valuable company answered “yes” when asked if he owned Bitcoin or Ethereum. He revealed that he has been investing in cryptocurrency “for a while.”

He also stated that it is reasonable to have a “diversified portfolio.” However, he dismissed the possibility that Apple will follow other companies such as Tesla or MicroStrategy and invest in BTC in the future.

At press time, the Bitcoin price was trading at $28,021.