The Hidden Bitcoin 'Easter Egg' In Apple's macOS

Ever since the earliest Macintosh versions (which contained hidden snake, Tetris and Pong games), Apple has been known for their hidden 'Easter eggs.' This is across several of their products, most notably macOS computers.

These Easter eggs include all sorts of peculiarities like the Lord of the Rings timeline, slow-motion animations and even the 'blue screen of death' (a clear dig at Microsoft).

The latest discovery embedded in an Apple PC is quite unexpected: the seminal Bitcoin whitepaper.

The discovery

Waxy, or Andy Baio, an American technologist and blogger, brought mainstream attention to the finding. It came on 05 April 2023, which happened to be Satoshi Nakamoto's (the mysterious Bitcoin founder) supposed birthday.

But let's back-track a bit. Waxy wasn't technically the first to discover the hidden file. A former Apple product designer named Joshua Dickens tweeted about the same thing in November 2020. Yet, somehow, it got little attention.

But Waxy's finding, fitting for Satoshi's supposed birthday, sparked many conversations about why such a file exists in an Apple computer.

Why is there a Bitcoin white paper hidden in a Mac PC?

As expected, users have devised various crazy theories over why the whitepaper exists on Apple's computers.

The 9-page paper, titled 'Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System', was written in 2008 and explained how Bitcoin works.

So, why does such a random file secretly exist within Apple's OS? The explanation is straightforward. Apple has a pre-installed app called Image Capture which allows you to scan images from an external scanner or transfer them to your Mac from any camera-operating device.

The Image Capture folder is where you find the whitepaper. This app is also involved in how Apple's computer handles printing machines. This explains how Waxy found the file while fixing his printer.

The whitepaper isn't technically hidden. It's common for software engineers to have random digital assets they use for internal sample testing. In this case, files in the Image Capture folder would be necessary for simulating the process of scanning and exporting images.

Still, the choice for including the Bitcoin whitepaper is rather interesting. It is either a random decision or an inside joke from an Apple engineer that is secretly a Bitcoin enthusiast. We don't know if the file will appear on future macOS versions. But now that this is public news, it will likely get removed.

So, no, Steve Jobs wasn't Satoshi Nakamoto!

How to find the Bitcoin white paper in your macOS

Firstly, you should note that the file, named 'simpledoc.pdf' is only on macOS versions from Mojave (released in September 2018). I tried the trick on my Mac running Ventura 13.3.1, Apple's latest PC operating system, and it worked.

There are two ways to find the paper. The first is:

Finder > Macintosh HD > System > Image Capture > Devices > Contents > Resources (the file in this folder should be 'simpledoc.pdf', which is the paper).

I think this method doesn't work on all Mac versions. The second way, which worked on my side, is typing the following command in Terminal:

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

Here is my attempt below:

Conclusion

It is interesting to think of the other potential cryptic or obscure 'relics' lurking in our computers. Yet, unless it's a virus, we shouldn't worry about random files that pop up serendipitously.

There is a further element to this story. Craig Wright, who has long asserted to be Satoshi, accused Apple of violating copyright laws by embedding the whitepaper.

Since he has claimed to be Nakamoto for years, he feels he owns all intellectual property related to the coin. Wright has involved himself in several legal disputes around this issue.

I don't see it going far with a massive corporation like Apple, considering he has no proof of creating the paper. Plus, there is no copyright sign anywhere on it.