The Bitcoin whitepaper was recently discovered to be embedded in several versions of macOS, and now a person who claims to be the creator of Bitcoin is accusing Apple of copyright violation.
Latest Bitcoin controversy
Just two days ago, on April 5, a Mac user discovered the technical document describing the Bitcoin cryptocurrency as well as blockchain technology on their computer. It's found on every modern Mac operating system by typing in a command in Terminal.
The document, authored by pseudonymous creator of the Bitcoin blockchain Satoshi Nakamoto, was written in 2008 to kick-start a decentralized peer-to-peer electronic payment system that boomed in recent years.
Recently, spurred on by a Tweet, someone has come forward implying that Apple has breached copyright law by including the PDF document in macOS, according to Finbold. The man is Craig Wright, who occasionally appears in cryptocurrency news.
Yes
-- Dr Craig S Wright (@Dr_CSWright) April 6, 2023
Wright has claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto since an article was written about him in 2015. The identity of Nakamoto has famously remained unknown, although many tried to identify the person.
Who is Craig Wright?
Since Wired wrote its article in 2015 proclaiming Wright to be the inventor of Bitcoin and has since doubted its hypothesis, Wright has since doubled down, suing anybody who denied he invented Bitcoin under English libel law.
The Bitcoin whitepaper in macOS
Although he promised in 2016 to give proof of his claim as the creator, he has yet to do so. Specifically, he has failed to provide proof of ownership of Nakamoto's Bitcoin address -- known as the Genesis address -- in a manner that satisfies experts.
Although Wright has yet to file a formal lawsuit against Apple, it's unlikely he will succeed since he still has to provide irrefutable evidence that he is indeed the creator of Bitcoin. Given the nature of the document, it's also unclear if any copyright law applies.