Base58 Encoding: The Human-Friendly Hex

In the early days of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto realized that raw hexadecimal strings (0-9, a-f) were too long and difficult for humans to handle. However, standard Base64 was too dangerous for a financial system. The solution was Base58.

1. The Compactness of Base58

Hexadecimal uses a "Base 16" system. Base58 uses 58 distinct characters.

• Hex: 0079be667ef9dcbbac55a06295ce870b07029bfc (40 chars)

• Base58: 1C6v4K9H1Y3X2W5Z7Y8X9Y0A (much shorter)

By using a larger alphabet, we can represent the same amount of information in fewer characters, making it easier to print on paper or send via text message.

2. Why not Base64?

Standard Base64 (64 characters) includes symbols like +, /, and =, which can break URL formatting or look confusing in different fonts. More importantly, Base64 includes characters that look identical to one another, which is a disaster for a "Copy-Paste" economy.

3. The Design Goal

Base58 was designed with three specific goals:

1. No Ambiguity: Characters that look alike were surgically removed.

2. No Punctuation: Only alphanumeric characters are used, ensuring it won't be "Linkified" or broken by email clients.

3. Double-Click Friendly: Most software treats a Base58 string as a "single word," allowing users to double-click to select the entire address easily.

4. Legacy Identity

Base58 is the foundation of "Legacy" Bitcoin. If you see an address starting with a 1 or a 3, you are looking at a Base58 encoded string. While modern SegWit addresses use Bech32, Base58 remains the most widely recognized format in the history of cryptocurrency.

Characteristic	Hexadecimal	Base64	Base58
Characters	16	64	58
Safe for Humans	Low	Low	High
Compactness	Low	High	Medium-High
URL Safe	Yes	No	Yes

In the next section, we will look at the Excluded Characters in the Base58 alphabet.