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The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS

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Re: The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS

#141

Post by alex_sf »

doodlesdev wrote: post #124
alex_sf wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but, it's really not going to be. Like, there is absolutely no chance of that, ever. Even in the very-unlikely world where some sort of decentralized cryptocurrency is used for anything other than scams and drugs, it's not going to be bitcoin, and blockchains existed for decades before bitcoin did.

> blockchains existed for decades before bitcoin did That's absolutely not true. Bitcoin was the first blockchain like the ones we know today, the idea existed before but no one had implemented it in a decentralized way [0][1]. Bitcoin was also the first to solve the double spending problem. [2] [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_Nakamoto [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain [2]: https://en.wikipedia…

We had DHTs, we had blockchains, and double spending was solved at least 2 years before the bitcoin white paper.

Satoshi combined them together in a novel form, for sure, but it’s still largely useless.

Re: The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS

#142

Post by [deleted] »

humanistbot wrote: post #140
yreg wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of those are famous PDFs .

OK fine, except for IRS Tax Form 1040. Each year's form is probably the most intentionally distributed PDF on the planet (so excluding PDFs bundled with software like this story). I don't think there is a country larger than the US that requires its citizens (or their tax agents/software) to download a form and submit it each year.

[deleted]

Re: The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS

#143

Post by capableweb »

humanistbot wrote: post #140
yreg wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of those are famous PDFs .

OK fine, except for IRS Tax Form 1040. Each year's form is probably the most intentionally distributed PDF on the planet (so excluding PDFs bundled with software like this story). I don't think there is a country larger than the US that requires its citizens (or their tax agents/software) to download a form and submit it each year.

> Each year's form is probably the most intentionally distributed PDF on the planet

In the US*. The Bitcoin paper has surely been distributed far wider than any US-specific tax forms.

Re: The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS

#144

Post by paconbork »

crazygringo wrote: post #87
krsdcbl wrote: post #84

Honestly If i had to guess, I'd say the answer is as simple as: a freely distributable, easily verifiable document was needed for testing purposes, and some engineer thought it'd be a cheeky little easter egg to use that file as bitcoin was starting to gain back traction in 2019 after it's first big surge and fall the years prior.

Yup. I can't even think of any other "famous PDF". If you asked me for a famous modern formatted document generally, I might say the screenplay for The Godfather would be a good candidate. But there's no canonical PDF for that. :P Plus, copyright would prevent that.

I'd suggest "The Moral Character of Cryptographic Work" but that might be a bit too on the nose

Re: The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS

#145

Post by humanistbot »

capableweb wrote: post #143
humanistbot wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK fine, except for IRS Tax Form 1040. Each year's form is probably the most intentionally distributed PDF on the planet (so excluding PDFs bundled with software like this story). I don't think there is a country larger than the US that requires its citizens (or their tax agents/software) to download a form and submit it each year.

> Each year's form is probably the most intentionally distributed PDF on the planet In the US*. The Bitcoin paper has surely been distributed far wider than any US-specific tax forms.

No. We're talking in the hundreds of millions of people who either make a 1040 PDF themselves or have one made for them, and every year. The number of people who have used a cryptocurrency is probably larger than but within one order of magnitude of the number of people who have filled out a US 1040. But the number of people who have intentionally downloaded the original Bitcoin whitepaper? That's a tiny, tiny fraction of cryptocurrency users.

Edit: Now that I think about it, the W-2 probably is even larger than 1040, because you get one from each employer, plus families can file jointly, and not everyone has to file taxes if they make below a certain amount. So a household with 4 people working 2 jobs each generates one 1040 but 8 W-2s per year.

Re: The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS

#146

Post by pcwalton »

crazygringo wrote: post #87
krsdcbl wrote: post #84

Honestly If i had to guess, I'd say the answer is as simple as: a freely distributable, easily verifiable document was needed for testing purposes, and some engineer thought it'd be a cheeky little easter egg to use that file as bitcoin was starting to gain back traction in 2019 after it's first big surge and fall the years prior.

Yup. I can't even think of any other "famous PDF". If you asked me for a famous modern formatted document generally, I might say the screenplay for The Godfather would be a good candidate. But there's no canonical PDF for that. :P Plus, copyright would prevent that.

For a long time Form 1040 was the top Google result for "pdf".

Re: The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS

#147

Post by lexandstuff »

ChickeNES wrote: post #97
crazygringo wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. I can't even think of any other "famous PDF". If you asked me for a famous modern formatted document generally, I might say the screenplay for The Godfather would be a good candidate. But there's no canonical PDF for that. :P Plus, copyright would prevent that.

How about "Attention Is All You Need"?

That is exactly what came to mind for me.

Re: The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS

#149

Post by grimgrin »

crazygringo wrote: post #87
krsdcbl wrote: post #84

Honestly If i had to guess, I'd say the answer is as simple as: a freely distributable, easily verifiable document was needed for testing purposes, and some engineer thought it'd be a cheeky little easter egg to use that file as bitcoin was starting to gain back traction in 2019 after it's first big surge and fall the years prior.

Yup. I can't even think of any other "famous PDF". If you asked me for a famous modern formatted document generally, I might say the screenplay for The Godfather would be a good candidate. But there's no canonical PDF for that. :P Plus, copyright would prevent that.

I can think of nothing more important and famous than chicken.pdf

https://isotropic.org/papers/chicken.pdf

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