Base256
Base256 maps every byte directly to itself (the identity encoding), giving the lowest expansion of all Base encodings (1:1).
Purpose
It serves as the baseline representation for other Base encodings, or preserves the raw byte stream wherever byte-wise processing is required.
Mechanism
Input and output are identical, each byte being one "character". In practice the data lives as a byte array and never passes through a printable-character mapping.
Use cases
- Raw byte representation of hash digests
- Cryptographic key storage
- Binary protocol payloads