The Bitcoin Whitepaper is the main document in the history of the cryptocurrency. It is essentially the technical documentation of the project, describing its key features. We analyzed the main points of the BTC Whitepaper in a separate article. We recommend reading it to get a better understanding of what is going on.

In general, Apple’s reputation in the cryptocurrency world is far from perfect. One of the biggest scandals with the company took place in late 2022. That’s when developers of many apps couldn’t publish them on the App Store. The reason for this was the company’s policy of not wanting to allow mincing NFT through apps without royalties to its own account.

What’s particularly amusing here is that it’s impossible to implement such a thing, since the payment for mincing – that is, creating NFTs – goes to their creators in the first place. Well, transaction fees go to the validators or miners in the blockchain, meaning Apple can’t influence anything here either.

The company then recalled its centralisation in early March 2023. That’s when representatives of Uniswap, the largest decentralised exchange, announced the release of its own wallet that allows digital assets to be stored and exchanged. However, Apple, for some reason, has not agreed to release the app on the App Store.

Why this is the case is unknown. According to the platform’s representatives, they have met all the requirements, which means that Apple is guided by some reasons of its own.

Where to find Bitcoin Whitepaper

Instructions on how to find the Whitepaper was shared by Andy Baio on his blog. According to him, the document is in every modern version of macOS, starting with Mojave, which was released in 2018. To find the whitepaper, you need to open a terminal and enter the following command.

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

If you have a macOS device, a preview of the document should open immediately. The document in this case looks like this.

We tested this command - and it really works. Which means that every modern macOS really does contain a copy of the Bitcoin whitepaper, although this is not reported.

Alternatively, the whitepaper can be accessed through the Finder. To do so, go to System → Library → Image Capture → Devices. Then hold down Control and click on VirtualScanner.app, then browse to the Resources folder, which is located in Contents. The document you want is simpledoc.pdf.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Baio said that he was “just trying to fix his printer” and scan the document with a wireless scanner. That’s when a device called “Virtual Scanner II” appeared, which he had “never seen before”. By default, Virtual Scanner II showed a photo, but when Baio changed the media type from “Photo” to “Document”, Satoshi Nakamoto’s Whitepaper appeared.

???? MORE INTERESTING STUFF CAN BE FOUND ON OUR YANDEX.ZEN!

Best of all, a Twitter user under the pseudonym Josh D found this document on his device back in 2020, it’s just that his post didn’t get enough publicity then. Baio also referred to screenshots posted by Josh D. In addition, all his friends who have macOS have also confirmed the find.

Another oddity: in the Resources folder there is a file called cover.jpg, a JPEG photo of the sign measuring 2634×3916, taken in San Francisco Bay. There is no EXIF metadata in the file, but photographer Thomas Hawke said he took an identical photo back in 2008.

As a reminder, Bitcoin’s Whitepaper was published on 31 October 2008. It is still unknown why the document ended up in modern versions of macOS. Perhaps there is an ardent cryptocurrency fan within Apple who has added his “passphrase” to the new systems. Still, the company still doesn’t interact with or accept cryptocurrencies as payment.

That said, Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed back in late 2021 that he owned cryptocurrencies. At the time, he said that holding digital assets “as part of a diversified portfolio makes perfect sense.


It looks like Apple's development team has really decided to give cryptocurrency lovers a surprise. Still this feature was not announced by the company and users of the giant's devices didn't know about it either. Maybe, in future Apple will really start to interact with digital assets and accept BTCs for payment. For now, however, it seems that such a gesture is not an official part of the company's policy. Most likely, it's just an exception to the rule.


What do you think about it? Share your opinion in our cryptochat of former rich people. There you can find other interesting news that affects the cryptocurrency market in one way or another.

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR CHANNEL ON TELEGRAM. THERE’S MORE INTERESTING NEWS HERE.