B58UUID for Rust

Base58-encoded UUID library for Rust with minimal dependencies.

🌐 Try the online converter at b58uuid.io

Why This Library?

Convert standard 36-character UUIDs to compact 22-character Base58 format:

• Significantly shorter - From 36 to 22 characters: 550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000 → BWBeN28Vb7cMEx7Ym8AUzs
• URL-safe - No special characters that need escaping
• Unambiguous - Uses Bitcoin's Base58 alphabet (excludes 0, O, I, l)
• Fast - Optimized encoding/decoding with lookup tables
• Safe - Memory-safe by design (Rust guarantees)
• Cross-platform - Works on Linux, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, WASM

Installation

Add to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
b58uuid = "1.0"

Usage

use b58uuid;

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    // Generate a new UUID
    let b58 = b58uuid::generate();
    println!("{}", b58); // Output: 3FfGK34vwMvVFDedyb2nkf

    // Encode existing UUID
    let encoded = b58uuid::encode_uuid("550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000")?;
    println!("{}", encoded); // Output: BWBeN28Vb7cMEx7Ym8AUzs

    // Decode back to UUID
    let uuid = b58uuid::decode_to_uuid("BWBeN28Vb7cMEx7Ym8AUzs")?;
    println!("{}", uuid); // Output: 550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000

    Ok(())
}

API

Functions

• generate() -> String - Generate a new random UUID and return Base58 encoding
• encode_uuid(uuid_str: &str) -> Result<String, B58UUIDError> - Encode UUID string to Base58
• decode_to_uuid(b58_str: &str) -> Result<String, B58UUIDError> - Decode Base58 string to UUID
• encode(data: &[u8; 16]) -> String - Encode 16-byte array to Base58
• decode(b58_str: &str) -> Result<[u8; 16], B58UUIDError> - Decode Base58 string to 16-byte array

Error Type

B58UUIDError enum with variants:

• InvalidUUID(String) - Invalid UUID format
• InvalidBase58(String) - Invalid Base58 string
• InvalidLength { expected: usize, got: usize } - Invalid length
• Overflow - Arithmetic overflow during conversion

Features

• Minimal dependencies: Only uses getrandom for secure random number generation
• Always 22 characters: Consistent, predictable output length
• Bitcoin Base58 alphabet: No confusing characters (0, O, I, l)
• Memory safe: Rust's compile-time guarantees prevent common bugs
• Full error handling: All operations return Result types
• Cross-platform: Works on all major platforms including embedded systems

Dependencies

This library has only one dependency: getrandom

Why getrandom?

Rust's standard library intentionally does not provide cryptographically secure random number generation. The getrandom crate is the de facto standard solution in the Rust ecosystem for this purpose.

Benefits of using getrandom:

• ✅ Cryptographically secure on all platforms (Linux, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, WASM)
• ✅ Minimal overhead: Small, well-audited crate with no transitive dependencies
• ✅ Widely trusted: Used by the rand crate and thousands of other projects
• ✅ Platform abstraction: Automatically uses the best random source for each platform:
  • Linux: getrandom() syscall
  • macOS/BSD: /dev/urandom
  • Windows: BCryptGenRandom()
  • WASM: crypto.getRandomValues()

Without getrandom, we would need to manually implement platform-specific code for each operating system, which would be error-prone and harder to maintain.

Testing

cargo test

Other Language Implementations

B58UUID is available in multiple languages:

• Go: b58uuid-go - Available on pkg.go.dev
• JavaScript/TypeScript: b58uuid-js - Available on npm
• Python: b58uuid-py - Available on PyPI
• Java: b58uuid-java - Available on Maven Central

Resources

• 🌐 Online Converter - Try B58UUID in your browser
• 📚 Documentation
• 🐛 Report Issues

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.