Base58 package

Introduction

This simple package implements the Base58 encoding/decoding, with and without checksum.

Installation

The package can be installed by simply running:

go get -u github.com/ebellocchia/go-base58

Usage

First of all, a base58 object shall be created using the New function, by specifying the alphabet to be used.
The possible alphabets are:

• Bitcoin: base58.AlphabetBitcoin
• Ripple: base58.AlphabetRipple
• Flickr: base58.AlphabetFlickr

If the object is created without using the New function, the Bitcoin alphabet will be used by default.
There are 4 APIs that can be used:

• Encode([]byte) string: encode bytes into string
• CheckEncode([]byte) string: encode bytes into string with checksum
• Decode(string) ([]byte, error): decode string back into bytes, return error if format is not valid
• CheckDecode(string) ([]byte, error): decode string with checksum back into bytes, return error if format or checksum is not valid

Example

package main

import (
  "github.com/ebellocchia/go-base58"
  "fmt"
  "encoding/hex"
)

func main() {
    // Create base58 object using Bitcoin alphabet
    base58Btc := base58.New(base58.AlphabetBitcoin)

    // Some bytes to encode
    data_bytes, _ := hex.DecodeString("bf4f89001e670274dd")

    // Encode
    // It returns an empty string if the alphabet is not valid
    enc := base58Btc.Encode(data_bytes)
    fmt.Printf("Encode: %s\n", enc)
    // CheckEncode
    // It returns an empty string if the alphabet is not valid
    check_enc := base58Btc.CheckEncode(data_bytes)
    fmt.Printf("Checksum encode: %s\n", check_enc)

    // Decode
    // It returns error if the alphabet or the string format is not valid
    dec, err := base58Btc.Decode(enc)
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }
    fmt.Printf("Decode: %s\n", hex.EncodeToString(dec))
    // CheckDecode
    // It returns error if the alphabet, the string format or the checksum is not valid
    check_dec, err := base58Btc.CheckDecode(check_enc)
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }
    fmt.Printf("Checksum decode: %s\n", hex.EncodeToString(check_dec))
}

License

This software is available under the MIT license.