base256 emoji

[alexgleason]

I noticed that bech32 IDs are still very long, almost as long as hex pubkeys. I thought since 16 x 2 = 32 it should be 1/2 the size? Doesn't work that way:

79c2cae114ea28a981e7559b4fe7854a473521a8d22a66bbab9fa248eb820ff6
npub108pv4cg5ag52nq082kd5leu9ffrn2gdg6g4xdwatn73y36uzplmq9uyev6

To get twice the encoding density, you need to double the exponent, not the base:

2⁴ = 16
2⁸ = 256

Therefore, we need to use base256 to halve the length of Nostr IDs. Fortunately, npm:base-emoji exists! And it uses base256 encoding! So, I present to you my Nostr public key in base256 emoji format:

🎁🍗🎀⚽️🎨💉🎂🐙🔨😎🍪🌙☁️😎🔆🐔💿💐🐻🔩🏃🌼🍩👈👐🍄👔🏁🔭👜🍎📼

This is possibly my greatest discovery on Nostr yet. This is unequivocally the future of Nostr cryptography. You can thank me later.

[vitorpamplona]

Emoji uses 34 "chars", but takes 132 bytes to represent them. It's visually shorter, but longer in byte array.

Both hex and bech use ~62 chars in 62 bytes.

[alexgleason]

Yes. It's actually less efficient for the computer. It has some usability problems for users too. The idea is genuinely stupid, but I think there may be something to it. It seems weirdly more accessible.

[vitorpamplona]

It would be cool if people could remember and type emojis very quickly

[mikedilger]

Fun!

[fiatjaf]

I hate this!

[alexgleason]

The guy who created this library created Bluesky.

[alexgleason]

Hey @pfrazee I'm using your experiment from 10 years ago to do something cursed in Nostr. 😃

[alexgleason]

Someone convince me not to do this, please. Because I like it a lot even though there are a few reasons not to do it. I'm sure it will "break everything", etc.

[vitorpamplona]

I will wait for when the combination of emojis is so large that we can represent a pubkey with a single emoji

Today for instance, you can do this + vary them by skin tone