On April 5, 2023, independent blogger Andy Baio on his Waxy Blog, all versions of macOS from Mojave 10.14.0 to the current version, posted an article explaining that they hold a copy of Satoshi Nakamoto’s seminal Bitcoin White Paper; Mac users simply type a simple command in the Terminal and all nine pages describing Nakamoto’s invention appear in a PDF version in the built-in image viewer, Preview Preview.
Bloggers Discover Bitcoin Whitepaper Hidden in All macOS 10.15 and Later
While celebrating Satoshi Nakamoto’s birthday on April 5, Bitcoin supporters discovered that many Macintosh computers with the macOS operating system contain the definitivecomplete Bitcoin White Paper“
The initial discovery was revealed in a blog posttitled “The Bitcoin White Paper Is Hidden in Every Modern Copy of macOS” on Andy Baio’s Waxy Blog. The independent blogger found the hidden file while repairing a printer and “consulted a dozen Mac-using friends to confirm it.”
Entering the command into Terminal and using a Mac running macOS 10.15 or later should open the bitcoin PDF in preview, according to Baio’s description. The blogger also explains how to access the file via the operating system’s library folder for those unfamiliar with the macOS terminal.
“Of all the documents in the world, why was the Bitcoin white paper chosen?” Baio asked in a blog post; Baio also discovered that the Bitcoin White Paper had been previouslydiscoveredandwritten aboutin the Apple community discussion forum.
However, this news never made its way to the Bitcoin community for the past five years; after Baio published the blog post, the news spread through social media; no one knows exactly why Apple hid theBitcoin whitepaperin the operating system, but to the delight of the crypto community, Bitcoin.com News further confirmed the presence of the whitepaper file on two Macs tested by the news desk.
What do you think about Apple including a copy of the Bitcoin whitepaper in their latest copy of macOS? Do you think it was a deliberate move or just a coincidence? Let us know in the comments section below.
Image credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons
