The Bitcoin Whitepaper Is Hidden in Each Fashionable Copy of macOS
Whereas making an attempt to repair my printer right this moment, I found {that a} PDF copy of Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin whitepaper apparently ships with each copy of macOS, since a minimum of the discharge of macOS Catalina (model 10.15) in 2019. I’ve requested over a dozen Mac-using mates to substantiate, and it was there for each one in every of them.
See for Your self
Should you’re on a Mac, open a Terminal and kind the next command:
open /System/Library/Picture Seize/Gadgets/VirtualScanner.app/Contents/Sources/simpledoc.pdf
Should you’re on macOS 10.15 or later, the Bitcoin PDF ought to instantly open in Preview.
(Should you’re fearful of the Terminal, simply open Finder and go into the Macintosh HD→System→Library→Picture Seize→Gadgets folder. Management-click on VirtualScanner.app and Present Package deal Contents, open the Contents→Sources folder inside, then open simpledoc.pdf.)
Within the Picture Seize utility, the Bitcoin whitepaper is used as a pattern doc for a tool known as “Digital Scanner II,” which is both hidden or not put in for everybody by default. It’s not clear why it’s hidden for some folks, or what precisely it’s used for. (Reid Beels steered it might energy the “Import from iPhone” characteristic.)
In Picture Seize, choose the “Digital Scanner II” system if it exists, and within the Particulars, set the Media to “Doc” and Media DPI to “72 DPI.”
However Why
Of all of the paperwork on the planet, why was the Bitcoin whitepaper chosen? Is there a secret Bitcoin maxi working at Apple? The filename is “simpledoc.pdf,” and it’s solely 184 KB. Possibly it was only a handy, light-weight multipage PDF for testing functions, by no means meant to be seen by finish customers.
There’s just about nothing about this on-line. As of this second, there are solely a pair references to “Digital Driver II” or the whitepaper file in Google outcomes. Specifically, this Twitter thread from designer Joshua Dickens in November 2020, who additionally noticed the whitepaper PDF, inspiring this Apple Community post in April 2021. And that’s it!
One different oddity: there’s a file known as cowl.jpg within the Sources folder used for testing the Photograph media kind, a 2,634×3,916 JPEG of an indication taken on Treasure Island within the San Francisco Bay. There’s no EXIF metadata within the photograph, however photographer Thomas Hawk identified it as the situation of a nearly identical photo he shot in 2008.
It’s a thriller! If something extra — about how or why the Bitcoin paper ended up in macOS, if it predates Catalina, or what Digital Scanner II is for — get in touch or depart a remark. (Anonymity assured!)