Bitcoin Whitepaper Exist by Default in Modern Apple MacOS

Bitcoin and Apple, the two keywords are enough to attract the attention of the financial markets across the world. Both names surfaced recently when the claims started floating off the Bitcoin Whitepaper in Apple’s macOS operating system, apparently after 2018. This implies that every Mac computer produced after that time consists of a paper of every know-how of the first cryptocurrency.

American technologist Andy Biao wrote a blog post noting his experience encountering the instance. He claimed to get to know about macOS having Bitcoin whitepaper unintentionally. He wrote, “While fixing my printer today, I discovered that a PDF copy of Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin whitepaper shipped with every copy of macOS since Mojave in 2018.”

And that was not the case with Biao only, he further stated to confirm it from many of his “Mac-using friends”, and all agreed to it. However, he added that only macOS versions from Mojave (10.14.0) to the existing version of Ventura (13.3) had Bitcoin whitepaper. It was not in the previous macOS versions like High Sierra (10.13). While searching more about it, Biao said he could not find anything online.

Though the instance picked up pace real quick, it was not the first time.

Earlier, there were similar instances of people calling out the matter. An Apple community member in 2021 brought the whitepaper’s existence over Apple computers to attention. He stated in a post that the whitepaper resided in the Virtual Scanner II, an Image Capture Utility. The section is not enabled by default for users.

Another instance was brought to attention by a Twitter user named Josh D in 2020, which Biao also mentioned in his blog.

As Biao also noted that nothing was officially mentioned about such a feature, the presence of whitepaper in computer systems of Apple-like giants attracts a lot of attention and curiosity.

Some popular theories are that some Bitcoin (BTC) supporting employees within the company might have put the document. However, given the prestigious image of a multi-trillion dollar company’s concern for premium experiences, it’s hard to believe any such thing.

While it was also speculated, as Biao also noted, that the company might have willingly put the document there to test the “lightweight multipage PDF”, which did not mean for users.

Apple did not have any direct ties to Bitcoin. Though once CEO Tim Cook confirmed ownership of some crypto assets, there was no mention of the company’s relation.