The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS • Hacker News Board

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

#41

Post by Skyy93 » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 10:29 PM UTC

louison11 wrote: post #32

It’s a convenient way of backing up the document that can be used to re-create this impactful technology from scratch… may a disaster take place. Think like sending backups of human civilization into space. There are probably now hundreds of millions of copy of this file, pretty cool.

Currently the only impact Bitcoin had is burning a large amount of electricity. I would not say this is a particular worthy technology to safe. There would be far better ideas like Transformers in AI or 5nm chip technology.

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

#42

Post by NKosmatos » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 10:29 PM UTC

Don’t mind me, I’m here just for the conspiracy theory comments :-)

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

#43

Post by indy » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 10:30 PM UTC

Animats wrote: post #9

Is there a Bitcoin miner somewhere in there, too?

Every iPhone ships with a bitcoin miner. It gets activated once your phone is over a year old.

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

#44

Post by colesantiago » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 10:30 PM UTC

plasticsoprano wrote: post #30

colesantiago wrote: post #21

I hope Apple sees this as a bug and removes this in their next major update, hopefully an Apple employee files a radar and gets this removed. This should have never been allowed on macOS, an endorsement of a pyramid scheme, borderline ponzi scheme, incinerating the planet and evading sanctions. I use Linux and macOS and the former would never allow this to happen ever.

How is a hidden file, that was just now stumbled upon 4+ years later, an endorsement?

It isn't hidden if it was found with a full path to file and now on full display.

By adding it into the main macOS, a sentient being at Apple deliberately chose that file to place it into a major operating system. I consider it an blantant endorsement.

I'm questioning Apple's review process because of this. At worst this is akin to malware.

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

#45

Post by neilv » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 10:30 PM UTC

Skyy93 wrote: post #41

louison11 wrote: post #32

It’s a convenient way of backing up the document that can be used to re-create this impactful technology from scratch… may a disaster take place. Think like sending backups of human civilization into space. There are probably now hundreds of millions of copy of this file, pretty cool.

Currently the only impact Bitcoin had is burning a large amount of electricity. I would not say this is a particular worthy technology to safe. There would be far better ideas like Transformers in AI or 5nm chip technology.

And facilitating organized crime, terrorism, and investment scams.

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

#46

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 10:30 PM UTC

mhluongo wrote: post #37

colesantiago wrote: post #21

I hope Apple sees this as a bug and removes this in their next major update, hopefully an Apple employee files a radar and gets this removed. This should have never been allowed on macOS, an endorsement of a pyramid scheme, borderline ponzi scheme, incinerating the planet and evading sanctions. I use Linux and macOS and the former would never allow this to happen ever.

> and the former would never allow this to happen ever. Not sure what you mean here. There are many Linux distros...?

[deleted]

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

#47

Post by colesantiago » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 10:30 PM UTC

mhluongo wrote: post #37

colesantiago wrote: post #21

I hope Apple sees this as a bug and removes this in their next major update, hopefully an Apple employee files a radar and gets this removed. This should have never been allowed on macOS, an endorsement of a pyramid scheme, borderline ponzi scheme, incinerating the planet and evading sanctions. I use Linux and macOS and the former would never allow this to happen ever.

> and the former would never allow this to happen ever. Not sure what you mean here. There are many Linux distros...?

And they will never allow this to happen.

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

#48

Post by Wowfunhappy » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 10:30 PM UTC

flir wrote: post #19

gardenhedge wrote: post #14

Confirmed on my MacBook bought in 2015 and on version macOS Catalina Version 10.15.1 Cool.

It's on this Mojave 10.14.6 machine too. The internet says that's Sep 26, 2019.

I can confirm the PDF is not present on OS X 10.9 Mavericks.

So it was added some time between 10.10 and 10.14.

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

#49

Post by toomim » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 10:31 PM UTC

zakki wrote: post #23

It will be wild if Steve Jobs is Satoshi Nakamoto.

Satoshi's last message was sent on April 26, 2011. Steve Jobs died 6 months later, on Oct 5, 2011. So that all sounds feasible.

(I personally think there's zero chance that they are the same person, but it's fun to entertain this fantasy.)

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

#50

Post by reaperman » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 10:31 PM UTC

mdmglr wrote: post #17

184 KB * how many Macs on earth? I don't mean anything by this, just interesting thought experiment. Was numbers.pdf not enough to accomplish what they wanted? My opinion: I understand the OS is a big multi-team effort but this just not cool. It's not about the contents of the file or that it's about bitcoin. Plain and simple: Don't ship files that don't need to be shipped. All these files, if they are test files, sh…

Back in my day, "easter eggs" used to be cool.