Base58 Encoder Bitcoin & IPFS: Addresses & WIF

A way to write bytes with 58 characters: the digits and letters without 0, O, I and l. It's shorter than hex, has no symbols like + and /, and a whole address can be selected with a double click.

A 4-byte checksum: the first 4 bytes of SHA-256 run twice over the data. A single typo almost always breaks it, so wallets catch mistakes before money is sent.

Each zero byte at the start becomes a 1, and ordinary Bitcoin addresses begin with the version byte 00. Script addresses use 05, which comes out as a 3.

No. SegWit addresses (bc1q…) and Taproot addresses (bc1p…) use Bech32 and Bech32m, which only use lower-case letters and digits and have a stronger checksum. This tool reads them too.

Wallet Import Format: a private key written in Base58Check with the version byte 80 (EF on testnet) and an extra 01 byte when its public key is compressed. Mainnet keys start with 5, K or L.

A CIDv0 (Qm…) is a Base58 SHA-256 multihash of a dag-pb block. A CIDv1 (bafy…) adds a version and codec and is usually written in base32, which works in web addresses. Both can point to the same data.

Everything runs in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere, but any website could be compromised. Keep keys that hold real money in a hardware wallet and test with keys that don't.