The Bitcoin white paper will (already) disappear from Macs

• In early April, it was discovered that every copy of macOS contains the Bitcoin white paper
• But it seems that this was not a message that the firm would have wanted to convey
• On the latest beta of macOS Ventura, this file has been deleted

At the beginning of April, we made a surprising discovery: all Macs cachea copy of the Bitcoin white paper.While Apple has never clearly supported cryptocurrencies, some saw it as a possible nod from the Cupertino company. Others, more realistically, have suggested that it may just be a joke by one of Apple's developers.

As the Bitcoin white paper is the founding document of the cryptocurrency, its presence on Macs ignited crypto enthusiasts. But things are clearer today, since Apple is already preparing to remove this famous document from its operating system, as part of a new update.

In any case, this is what is indicated by an article from our colleagues at 9to5Mac. This explored the new beta version of macOS Ventura (13.4 beta 3) and indicates that the white paper no longer appears in the files. In other words, when this update is rolled out to all users, the white paper will disappear from Apple machines. Therefore, we can already exclude the idea that it was an easter egg or a clue left by Apple.

Apple removes the tool that hid the Bitcoin Bible

In its article, 9to5Mac also recalls that the white paper or the “Bible” of Bitcoin was hidden in the macOS system files, with other PDF and image content, in the directory of the Image Capture application. And more precisely, these files were part of internal Apple software called “VirtualScanner.app”.

This tool would be used by Apple engineers to simulate the act of scanning a document or an image, without actually using a scanner, with the Image Capture application. But on the version of macOS which is currently being tested in beta, VirtualScanner.app has been deleted, as well as its files, including the white paper of theBitcoin.

According to 9to5Mac, all of this confirms that this internal tool, as well as the Bitcoin whitepaper, was not supposed to be seen by users. But Apple engineers just wouldn't have bothered to delete them before, since there was no confidential information.