Apple removes Bitcoin whitepaper from latest macOS beta

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A few weeks ago, users discovered that every copy of macOS had the original Bitcoin whitepaper hidden in its internal files. Apple never discussed the reason for this, although we believe the existence of the file was just a joke among Apple engineers. Now the file is gone with the latest 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 discovered that Apple had removed the Bitcoin whitepaper that was hidden in system files. Specifically, the file was in a folder in the Image Capture app with some other random stuff, like other PDFs and images.

These assets were part of an internal tool called “VirtualScanner.app” that allowed Apple engineers to simulate the process of scanning and exporting documents and images with the Image Capture application without the need for a to scan. In fact, the entire internal tool has been removed from the beta.

This pretty much confirms our original theory that the Bitcoin whitepaper and internal tool was never meant to be found by regular users. The most likely explanation is that the engineers hadn’t bothered to remove this tool from the public version of macOS because it didn’t contain any sensitive information.

The Bitcoin whitepaper appears 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

Considering the repercussions of the original news, it’s no surprise that Apple ended up deleting the file from the system.

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