`libcrypto.formats`¶

Encoding and format-conversion utilities.

Base58 and Base58Check¶

Function	Description
`base58_encode(data, alphabet=BASE58_ALPHABET) -> str`	Encode bytes to Base58.
`base58_decode(encoded, alphabet=BASE58_ALPHABET) -> bytes`	Decode Base58 to bytes. Raises `InvalidFormatError` on bad characters.
`base58_check_encode(data, alphabet=BASE58_ALPHABET) -> str`	Base58 with a 4-byte double-SHA256 checksum.
`base58_check_decode(encoded, alphabet=BASE58_ALPHABET) -> bytes`	Verify and strip the checksum. Raises `InvalidFormatError`.

The alphabet argument allows alternative dictionaries, such as the Ripple/XRP alphabet.

WIF (Wallet Import Format)¶

`private_key_to_wif(private_key, compressed=True, network="bitcoin") -> str`¶

Encode a 32-byte or integer private key to WIF for a supported network.

`wif_to_private_key(wif) -> tuple[bytes, bool, str]`¶

Decode WIF to (private_key_bytes, is_compressed, network). Raises InvalidFormatError for a bad checksum, length, version byte, or compression flag.

from libcrypto import private_key_to_wif, wif_to_private_key

wif = private_key_to_wif(bytes.fromhex("00"*31 + "01"), compressed=True)
key, compressed, network = wif_to_private_key(wif)

Integer / bytes / hex conversions¶

Function	Description
`bytes_to_int(data, byteorder="big") -> int`	Bytes to integer.
`int_to_bytes(value, length=0, byteorder="big") -> bytes`	Integer to bytes (minimal length when `length=0`).
`bytes_to_hex(data) -> str`	Bytes to lowercase hex.
`hex_to_bytes(hex_str) -> bytes`	Hex (optionally `0x`-prefixed, odd length tolerated) to bytes.

Exceptions¶

Exception	Meaning
`InvalidFormatError`	Any format decode/verify failure (subclass of `ValueError`).

Performance note¶

base58_encode accumulates digits in a list and reverses once; base58_decode uses a character→value map. Both avoid quadratic behavior on long inputs while producing byte-for-byte identical results to the naive implementation.

libcrypto.formats¶