Uncovered Secret: macOS 10.15 and Later Contains a Hidden Copy of Bitcoin’s White Paper

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In April 5, 2023, independent blogger Andy Baio made an amazing discovery – Mac OS versions 10.14.0 and later have a hidden copy of the Bitcoin white paper. By typing a few commands in the terminal, the document can be seen in the built-in image viewer, Preview.

Blogger Finds Bitcoin White Paper Buried in Every macOS 10.15 or Later

To celebrate Satoshi Nakamoto’s April 5th birthday, bitcoin supporters uncovered the fact that many Macintosh computers running macOS contain a full version of the Bitcoin white paper.

Hidden Treasure: Every Modern Copy of macOS Contains a Copy of Bitcoin's White Paper
Screenshot of the Preview PDF file.

The discovery was first revealed in a blog post on Andy Baio’s Waxy Blog entitled “The Bitcoin White Paper Is Hidden in Every Modern Copy of macOS”. The independent blogger made the discovery while dealing with a printing issue and confirmed his findings by getting input from several Mac users.

As Baio explained, typing a few commands into the terminal will bring up the PDF version of the Bitcoin white paper in Preview. The blogger also provides step-by-step instructions on how to access the file in the operating system’s library folder for those who are not comfortable using the macOS terminal.

“Of all the documents in the world, why was the Bitcoin white paper chosen?” Baio asked in his blog post. Interestingly, the white paper had been previously found and written about in the Apple community discussions forum, but the news never made it to the bitcoin community.

After Baio published his blog post, the news went viral on social media. No one knows for sure why Apple decided to include a copy of the Bitcoin white paper in the operating system, but it has delighted the crypto community. Bitcoin.com News further verified that the white paper file was indeed present on two Macs that were tested.

Tags in this story
Andy Baio, Apple, Bitcoin, Bitcoin.com News, Blockchain, Command, crypto community, Cryptocurrency, Decentralized, Digital Asset, Digital Currency, Discovery, encryption, financial system, hidden file, Innovation, library folder, Macintosh, macOS, news desk, Open Source, Operating System, PDF, Preview, Printer, Satoshi Nakamoto, Security, Social Media, technology, terminal, Transparency, Verification, Virtual Currency, Waxy Blog, White Paper

Have you ever heard about this uncovered secret? What do you think of Apple including a copy of the Bitcoin white paper in every modern copy of macOS? Tell us your opinion in the comments section below.

Jamie Redman

Jamie Redman is the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News and a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open-source code, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 6,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.




Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

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