The Bitcoin whitepaper written by its founder Satoshi Nakamoto is reportedly hidden on every modern version of the Mac operating system (OS) starting from Mojave in 2018. This news emerged on April 5 in a blog post authored by technologist Andy Baio, who revealed a PDF version of the whitepaper laying out the Bitcoin (BTC) network. Baio had stumbled upon the whitepaper while attempting to address a printer problem and scanning a document with a wireless scanner. He noticed a device called “Virtual Scanner ll” and on switching the media type from Photo to Document, Nakamoto’s whitepaper appeared.

After Baio’s discovery, he took to Twitter seeking confirmation and that’s when designer Joshua Dickens provided a thread navigating the Mac Terminal command that could help to bring up the whitepaper. Baio crafted a prompt for users to use in Terminal for others to also access the document. His subsequent confirmation from other Mac-using friends and the testers at Cointelegraphbrought credence to histor breakthrough.

What remains a puzzle however, is why the great Satoshi Nakamoto’s work has found itself embedded in Mac operating systems. Baio wrote on his blog that it might have been used as “just a convenient, lightweight multipage PDF for testing purposes, never meant to be seen by end users.” Surprisingly the whitepaper appears to only be found on all OS versions from Mojave up until the current Ventura, but not on High Sierra 10.13 or earlier.

The discovery of the Bitcoin whitepaper and its inextricable linkage with the Mac OS could well hint at a possible hidden association between Mac and US-based Nakamoto. But however coincidental the discovery of, it is an important milestone that reinforces the underlying coverage and public acknowledgment of Bitcoin.



Other News from Today