A few weeks ago, users discovered that every copy of macOS has the original Bitcoin whitepaper hidden in its internal files. Apple never discussed the reason for this, although we believe that the existence of the file there was just a joke among Apple engineers. Now the file is gone with the latest version of macOS Ventura beta.
macOS has a copy of the Bitcoin whitepaper, but Apple is now removing it
Following the release of macOS Ventura 13.4 beta 3 to developers on Tuesday, 9to5Mac has found that Apple has removed the Bitcoin whitepaper that was hidden in the system files. More specifically, the file was located in a folder within the Image Capture app along with other random assets, such as other PDF files and images.
These assets were part of an internal tool called “VirtualScanner.app” that let Apple engineers simulate the process of scanning and exporting documents and images with the Image Capture app without actually needing a scanner. In fact, the entire internal tool has been removed from the beta.
This pretty much confirms our original theory that both the Bitcoin whitepaper and the internal tool were never meant to be found by regular users. The most likely explanation is that the engineers previously did not bother to remove this tool from the public release of macOS since it didn’t include any sensitive information.
The Bitcoin whitepaper seems to have been added to the system with macOS Mojave in 2018. If you haven’t updated your Mac to the latest beta yet, you can still find the file by running the following command in Terminal:
open /System/Library/Image\ Capture/Devices/VirtualScanner.app/Contents/Resources/simpledoc.pdf
Given the repercussions that the original news story had, it’s no surprise that Apple ended up removing the file from the system.
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