Mastering Blockchain - Second Edition

Encoding schemes

Other than cryptographic primitives, binary-to-text encoding schemes are also used in various scenarios. The most common use is to convert binary data into text so that it can either be processed, saved, or transmitted via a protocol that does not support the processing of binary data. For example, sometimes, images are stored in the database as base64 encoding, which allows a text field to be able to store a picture. A commonly-used encoding scheme is base64. Another encoding named base58 was popularized by its use in Bitcoin.

Cryptography is a vast field, and this section has merely introduced the basic concepts that are essential to understanding cryptography in general and specifically from the blockchain and cryptocurrency ...