Bitcoin white paper files have been randomly hidden on macOS

Satoshi Nakamoto’s original Bitcoin white paper files have been hidden on potentially millions of macOS devices.

If you’re on Apple’s MacOS, a strange discovery has been made by blogger Andy Baio. Hidden within the depths of every up-to-date macOS device is hiding a Bitcoin white paper, the same one penned by Satoshi Nakamoto. The file is 184KB in size and can be identified under the name “simpledoc.pdf”. The file can be traced back to the “Mojave” version of Apple’s OS, which was released way back in 2018.

To check this strange phenomenon for yourself, simply open Terminal and run the following command, without the quote marks:

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

How did the Bitcoin white paper end up on macOS?

According to Baio, Apple’s macOS has a system application named VirtualScanner.app. This could be related to the “import on iPhone” feature that iOS and macOS devices can use. It allows you to scan documents from your phone and port them over to your macOS device.

A “little bird” told Baio that the issue of the Bitcoin white paper’s presence on Apple’s devices was detected internally “nearly a year ago” and that the very same engineer who “put the PDF there in the first place” is assigned to the ticket to remove it. As of the time of writing, the white paper can still be found on millions of macOS devices dating back to the “Mojave” version of the OS.

The likelihood is not that Apple is suddenly super into crypto, but instead was the work of a rogue engineer who happens to be a cryptocurrency enthusiast, who was using the file as a test file for the application.

However, with the file now being discovered, it’s likely that a future OS update will remove the white paper. But for now, it remains to be an interesting curio that you can check out for yourself, if you have a MacBook or similar.