README.md

base58

Base58 and Base58Check implementation compatible with what is used by the bitcoin network.

Command line usage

$ printf "hello world" | base58
StV1DL6CwTryKyV

$ printf "hello world" | base58 -c
3vQB7B6MrGQZaxCuFg4oh

$ printf "3vQB7B6MrGQZaxCuFg4oh" | base58 -dc
hello world

$ printf "4vQB7B6MrGQZaxCuFg4oh" | base58 -dc
Invalid checksum

Module usage

>>> import base58
>>> base58.b58encode(b'hello world')
'StV1DL6CwTryKyV'
>>> base58.b58decode(b'StV1DL6CwTryKyV')
b'hello world'
>>> base58.b58encode_check(b'hello world')
'3vQB7B6MrGQZaxCuFg4oh'
>>> base58.b58decode_check(b'3vQB7B6MrGQZaxCuFg4oh')
b'hello world'
>>> base58.b58decode_check(b'4vQB7B6MrGQZaxCuFg4oh')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "base58.py", line 89, in b58decode_check
    raise ValueError("Invalid checksum")
ValueError: Invalid checksum