TypeScript/JavaScript component to compute base 58 encoding. This encoding is typically used for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.

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

pnpm add @vdavid/bs58
# or
npm install @vdavid/bs58

• Node.js >= 25.0.0
• ESM support (this package is ESM-only)

You can import the default export and use it as an object:

import bs58 from '@vdavid/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

const decoded = bs58.decode(address)
console.log(Buffer.from(decoded).toString('hex'))
// => 003c176e659bea0f29a3e9bf7880c112b1b31b4dc826268187

You can also import encode and decode as named exports:

import { encode, decode } from '@vdavid/bs58'

const bytes = Uint8Array.from([0, 60, 23, 110, 101, 155, 234])
const address = encode(bytes)
console.log(address)
// => 16UjcYNBG9GTK4uq2f7yYEbuifqCzoLMGS

const decoded = decode(address)
console.log(Buffer.from(decoded).toString('hex'))
// => 003c176e659bea0f29a3e9bf7880c112b1b31b4dc826268187

Encodes a Uint8Array, Buffer, or Array to a base58 string.

Parameters:

• input - The binary data to encode

Returns: A base58 encoded string

Example:

import { encode } from '@vdavid/bs58'

const bytes = Buffer.from('hello world', 'utf8')
const encoded = encode(bytes)
console.log(encoded)

Decodes a base58 string to a Uint8Array.

Parameters:

• input - The base58 encoded string to decode

Returns: A Uint8Array containing the decoded binary data

Throws: Error if the input contains invalid base58 characters

Example:

import { decode } from '@vdavid/bs58'

const address = '16UjcYNBG9GTK4uq2f7yYEbuifqCzoLMGS'
const bytes = decode(address)
console.log(Buffer.from(bytes).toString('hex'))
// => 003c176e659bea0f29a3e9bf7880c112b1b31b4dc826268187

This project uses:

• pnpm for package management
• TypeScript for type safety
• ESLint and Prettier for code quality
• tape for testing

pnpm install

• pnpm run build - Build the project
• pnpm run test - Run linting and tests
• pnpm run unit - Run tests only
• pnpm run lint - Run ESLint
• pnpm run lint:fix - Fix ESLint issues
• pnpm run format - Format code with Prettier
• pnpm run format:check - Check code formatting
• pnpm run typecheck - Run TypeScript type checking

This package is ESM-only. For browser usage, use a bundler like Vite, Webpack, or Rollup that supports ESM.

• David Veszelovszki for maintaining this package
• Jonathan Underwood for writing the parent JS implementation
• 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