Apple has built a Bitcoin manifesto into every modern Macbook
Every Macbook and Mac running on the current version of macOS contains a hidden original Bitcoin manifesto written by the mythical creator of this cryptocurrency, Satoshi Nakamoto. The existence of this file was reported by blogger Andy Baio, who also showed how to open this document using a simple command in the terminal.
Here is the command you can use to open the Bitcoin manifesto on your Mac:
open /System/Library/Image\ Capture/Devices/VirtualScanner.app/Contents/Resources/simpledoc.pdf
The file is included in a system program called VirtualScanner.app. This is almost certainly related to Continuity Camera’s “import from iPhone” feature, which allows you to insert images or documents “scanned” with an iPhone or iPad camera directly into programs running on macOS. This feature was originally introduced in Mojave, the same version of macOS to which the bitcoin document was added.
Bayo says that the availability of Bitcoin documentation was reported as an internal issue at Apple “almost a year ago” and that the same engineer who posted the PDF was tasked with solving the problem.
The Bitcoin whitepaper is not the only secret document included in macOS. For years, the Pages program has included a small file called apple.txt with the full text of a speech from an old Apple “for the crazy” ad, as well as a speech by former CEO Steve Jobs at the 2005 Stanford University commencement.
