The digital copy of Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin whitepaper was hidden within a test scanner app on macOS and discovered as an Easter egg earlier this month. Apple has now removed it from the latest beta version of the operating system, along with all the other associated elements, with the removal of the test scanner app Virtual Scanner II. The document will not be available to users updating to MacOS Ventura 13.4 beta 3, which was released to developers on Tuesday, but those who have not updated can still access it with a command. American technologist Andy Baio disclosed the find in a blog post on April 5th, suggesting the whitepaper’s PDF copy could have been added to the system with macOS Mojave, launched in 2018. Baio later updated that the file had been flagged as an issue internally nearly a year ago and was likely to be removed in future versions.
- The discovery of the whitepaper led to a range of conspiracy theories, including speculation about the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto.
- The Bitcoin creator of Bitcoin, Craig Wright, subsequently accused Apple of violating copyright laws.
