The Bitcoin whitepaper was found as a hidden file on Mac computers in 2020, and today rumors have been refueled as the whitepaper is confirmed to still be present on the current Mac OS, sparking speculation that Steve Jobs is Satoshi Nakamoto.
Multiple people have posted to confirm this finding, including the Twitter account Documenting Bitcoin – which showed a video demonstrating the file path to accessing the whitepaper.
“/System/Library/Image Capture/Devices/VirtualScanner.app/Contents/Resources/simpledoc.pdf“
Documenting Bitcoin added that the file is available on every Mac running Catalina or newer operating systems.
Catalina launched in October 2019, bringing additional new features, including updated security and iPad as a second screen functionality.
Is Steve Jobs the creator of Bitcoin?
The identity of Satoshi Nakamoto remains clouded in mystery to this day.
The issue is all the more puzzling, considering the reported 750,000 to 1.1 million Bitcoin fortune that Nakamoto controls remains untouched.
Over the years, the Bitcoin community has put forward several names as likely candidates, including Hal Finney, who was extensively involved in its development before his death. And Nick Szabo, having published a paper on “Bit gold” in 1998 – more than a decade before Bitcoin – which detailed a decentralized, proof-of-work virtual currency.
Given Jobs’ hand in bringing personal computers to the mass market, the late Apple co-founder has also been linked as the BTC creator – albeit less likely- as he is considered a visionary and business magnate rather than a coder and cryptographer.
Speculators say Nakamoto is possibly a group of individuals, with one or all having ties to Japan in some capacity, such as living there at some point.
What happened to Satoshi?
Nakamoto’s last public contact occurred as a post on the bitcointalk.org forum on Dec. 12, 2010.
The message stated that work was being done to counter Denial of Service attacks. It gave no indication of stepping back from the project. To date, no further communication has been received from that account.
“There’s more work to do on DoS, but I’m doing a quick build of what I have so far in case it’s needed, before venturing into more complex ideas. The build for this is version 0.3.19.”
In November 2021 (at the market top,) Apple’s current CEO Tim Cook expressed support for holding Bitcoin or Ethereum as part of a diversified portfolio. While he acknowledged a personal interest in cryptocurrency, Cook denied any plans for collaboration or partnership between Apple and the crypto industry.
Steve Jobs died of pancreatic cancer on Oct. 5, 2011.
