There seems to be an Apple insider with a keen interest in Bitcoin, or at least fascinated by its underlying technology, as the entire Bitcoin whitepaper is discreetly embedded within MacOS.

To be precise, the complete Bitcoin whitepaper by Satoshi Nakamoto is saved as a PDF file inside the resources of the Image Capture application — yes, the same app you use to transfer photos from your iPhone, scanner, or digital camera to your Mac. You can read it directly on your Mac, which might be beneficial before investing in Bitcoin or simply to deepen your understanding of cryptocurrencies. Let’s walk through the steps to locate and view it on your Mac.

How to Access the Bitcoin Whitepaper in MacOS

For any macOS version starting from Mojave or later, follow these instructions to access the Bitcoin whitepaper:

1. From the Finder, press command shift G to open Go To Folder, then input the following path: /System/Library/Image Capture/Devices/VirtualScanner.app/Contents/Resources/

2. Find the file labeled “simpledoc.pdf” and open it to view the Bitcoin whitepaper in PDF format.

Alternatively, if you prefer using the command line, you can type the following command, which will display the Bitcoin whitepaper in your default PDF viewer (Preview by default on Macs unless changed).

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

It seems that the simpledoc.pdf file serves as a sample scanned document when using Image Capture with a scanner. Any other document could have theoretically been chosen for this role, but evidently, someone at Apple specifically selected the Bitcoin whitepaper, possibly due to humor, curiosity, practicality, randomness, personal belief, coincidence, or another motivation.

Although this may appear odd, the Mac has a tradition of harboring intriguing hidden gems and Easter eggs scattered throughout the operating system. Other such Easter eggs include a famous Steve Jobs speech concealed in MacOS, playful knock-knock jokes from the text-to-speech engine, an emacs psychotherapist, and “The Crazy Ones,” which was previously featured on the TextEdit icon in older Mac OS X versions before being replaced by a bland, uninspired blank notepad icon resembling Windows 95—a decision many consider regrettable.

This delightful discovery originates from waxy.org, which notes that the whitepaper exists in every MacOS release from Mojave onwards, as reported by 512pixels.net. However, history suggests that once these amusing Easter eggs become publicly known, they tend to vanish from future updates, perhaps due to the influence of overly serious individuals hired during what Steve Jobs termed a dreaded “Bozo Explosion.” Of course, I hold no grudge over losing these playful elements from Mac OS—I remain completely unfazed!

Update: As anticipated, the Bitcoin whitepaper PDF file has been eliminated in the most recent versions of MacOS Sonoma and macOS Ventura.

The above is the detailed content of The Bitcoin Whitepaper is Hidden in MacOS. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!