bs58

What is bs58?

The bs58 npm package is a utility for encoding and decoding data in Base58, which is a binary-to-text encoding scheme. It is commonly used in cryptocurrency applications, particularly Bitcoin, for encoding addresses and other data in a compact, human-readable format.

What are bs58's main functionalities?

Encoding a Buffer to Base58

This feature allows you to encode a buffer of binary data into a Base58 string. The code sample demonstrates encoding the UTF-8 string 'Hello World' into Base58.

"use strict"; const bs58 = require('bs58'); const bytes = Buffer.from('Hello World', 'utf8'); const encoded = bs58.encode(bytes); console.log(encoded);

Decoding a Base58 String to a Buffer

This feature allows you to decode a Base58 string back into its original binary form, represented as a Buffer. The code sample demonstrates decoding a Base58 string back into the original UTF-8 string.

"use strict"; const bs58 = require('bs58'); const encoded = 'JxF12TrwUP45BMd'; const bytes = bs58.decode(encoded); console.log(bytes.toString('utf8'));

Other packages similar to bs58

base-x

The base-x package is a general-purpose base encoding/decoding library that supports multiple bases, such as Base58, Base64, etc. It is more flexible than bs58 as it can handle a variety of encodings, but it might be slightly more complex to use for Base58 specifically.

base58check

The base58check package is similar to bs58 but includes additional functionality for adding and verifying checksums, which is a common requirement in Bitcoin address encoding. This makes it more suitable for applications that require checksum validation.

README

bs58

JavaScript component to compute base 58 encoding. This encoding is typically used for crypto currencies such as Bitcoin.

Note: If you're looking for base 58 check encoding, see: https://github.com/bitcoinjs/bs58check, which depends upon this library.

Install

npm i --save bs58

API

encode(input)

input must be a Uint8Array, Buffer, or an Array. It returns a string.

example:

import bs58 from 'bs58'

const bytes = Uint8Array.from([
    0, 60,  23, 110, 101, 155, 234,
   15, 41, 163, 233, 191, 120, 128,
  193, 18, 177, 179,  27,  77, 200,
   38, 38, 129, 135
])
const address = bs58.encode(bytes)
console.log(address)
// => 16UjcYNBG9GTK4uq2f7yYEbuifqCzoLMGS

decode(input)

input must be a base 58 encoded string. Returns a Uint8Array.

example:

import bs58 from 'bs58'

const address = '16UjcYNBG9GTK4uq2f7yYEbuifqCzoLMGS'
const bytes = bs58.decode(address)
// See uint8array-tools package for helpful hex encoding/decoding/compare tools
console.log(Buffer.from(bytes).toString('hex'))
// => 003c176e659bea0f29a3e9bf7880c112b1b31b4dc826268187

Browser

You can use this module in the browser. Install Browserify:

npm install -g browserify

then run:

browserify node_modules/bs58/cjs/index.cjs -o bs58.bundle.js --standalone bs58

Hack / Test

Uses JavaScript standard style. Read more:

Credits

• Mike Hearn for original Java implementation
• Stefan Thomas for porting to JavaScript
• Stephan Pair for buffer improvements
• Daniel Cousens for cleanup and merging improvements from bitcoinjs-lib
• Jared Deckard for killing bigi as a dependency

License

MIT