Base58 Encoder / Decoder
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What is Base58 encoding?
Base58 is a binary-to-text encoding created by Satoshi Nakamoto for Bitcoin addresses. Base58 is a more human-friendly encoding than Base64 because some similar characters are omitted to avoid confusion when printed.
What are the characters used in Base58 encoding?
The characters used in Base58 encoding are as the following. The omitted similar looking characters that can cause ambiguity are 0 (zero), O (capital o), I (capital i), l (lowercase L), + (plus), and / (slash).
The characters used in Base58 encoding can be divided into three groups; i.e. digits, uppercase, and lowercase.
- Digits - From index 0 to 8
123456789 - Uppercase letters - From index 9 to 32
ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZ - Lowercase letters - From index 33 to 57
abcdefghijkmnopqrstuvwxyz
This is the list of all the characters used in Base58 encoding ordered by index.
123456789ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijkmnopqrstuvwxyzThe Base58 encoding index table
The following is the Base58 encoding index table.
| Index | Character | Index | Character | Index | Character | Index | Character |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 | 16 | H | 32 | Z | 48 | q |
| 1 | 2 | 17 | J | 33 | a | 49 | r |
| 2 | 3 | 18 | K | 34 | b | 50 | s |
| 3 | 4 | 19 | L | 35 | c | 51 | t |
| 4 | 5 | 20 | M | 36 | d | 52 | u |
| 5 | 6 | 21 | N | 37 | e | 53 | v |
| 6 | 7 | 22 | P | 38 | f | 54 | w |
| 7 | 8 | 23 | Q | 39 | g | 55 | x |
| 8 | 9 | 24 | R | 40 | h | 56 | y |
| 9 | A | 25 | S | 41 | i | 57 | z |
| 10 | B | 26 | T | 42 | j | ||
| 11 | C | 27 | U | 43 | k | ||
| 12 | D | 28 | V | 44 | m | ||
| 13 | E | 29 | W | 45 | n | ||
| 14 | F | 30 | X | 46 | o | ||
| 15 | G | 31 | Y | 47 | p |
What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency which is a digital asset used as an alternative to money on the internet which is considerably safe, secure, and anonymous abbreviated as BTC. The symbol representing the currency unit for Bitcoin is ₿ (U+20BF in Unicode).
You can get Bitcoin by either mining it using Bitcoin mining hardware or buying existing Bitcoin directly from a cryptocurrency exchange platform. There are only 21 million Bitcoins in total. The more Bitcoins are mined, the more difficult mining will be.
The following is an example of a Bitcoin address which is comprised of the characters in Base58 encoding. A Bitcoin address can be accessed using the corresponding private key which is Base58 encoded as well.
1AWYxm3v4W6cNwALLyw1HXLtYnpRNPcZYMWhat is a satoshi?
The satoshi is the smallest unit of Bitcoin named after the person who created Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto. 100 million satoshis are equivalent to 1 Bitcoin (1 satoshi = 0.00000001 BTC). However, the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto has still been unknown ever since the Bitcoin currency has been created.
What is an altcoin?
The term altcoin means alternative coin referring to any cryptocurrencies other than the dominant Bitcoin, such as Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Litecoin (LTC). However, the addresses of altcoins may not implement Base58 encoding.