Yes. I think of base64 as an unconventional encoding, in that regard, since it's more than just an alphabet for powers of the base but also communicates propert

Yes. I think of base64 as an unconventional encoding, in that regard, since it's more than just an alphabet for powers of the base but also communicates properties of the output octet length in the serialized form. To do that it's relying on an elegant alignment of bit values to that base58 doesn't have. Perhaps there could be a means to inject the same confluence of form and function into base58, albeit I can't see it after a couple minutes of staring at the algorithm¹. And also yes: the equals sign is potentially hazardous in a query string, and the use of non-alphanumeric symbols in base64 also creates line-break and double-click/double-tap traps when passed around in an ad-hoc fashion, even in the url-safe variant. [1] https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-msporny-base58 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-msporny-base58