BIP85: replace Base64 by Base85 in PWD BASE85 section #1939

1. 
   ethicnology commented at 1:45 pm on August 20, 2025: contributor

   Replace Base64 by Base85 encoder in the Pwd Base85 section, and use consistent capitalization.
2. jonatack added the label Proposed BIP modification on Aug 20, 2025
3. 
   jonatack commented at 4:53 pm on August 20, 2025: member

   cc @akarve @scgbckbone @nvk @ethankosakovsky for feedback, this BIP is deployed by a few projects and is in final status (https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/pull/1676), so no potentially breaking changes may be introduced.
4. 
   akarve commented at 6:28 pm on August 20, 2025: contributor

   @ethicnology in this spec the derived entropy, e.g. on both of the applications you commented on, is of fixed length. in what context would this be variable? there is trimming for the password length but that is explicitly post entropy. if you want truly variable password length and dictionaries (allows length of 1) maybe the new dice app is what you want?
5. 
   akarve commented at 6:30 pm on August 20, 2025: contributor

   @jonatack this particular change i’m asking for clarification on; so far i don’t see the need. as for backward compatibility we now have a semver log. is it your opinion that even if the community adopts a major semver change that it needs to backward compatible or that said major semver change belongs in a clean BIP?
6. 
   jonatack commented at 7:05 pm on August 20, 2025: member

   as for backward compatibility we now have a semver log. is it your opinion that even if the community adopts a major semver change that it needs to backward compatible or that said major semver change belongs in a clean BIP?

   Hi @akarve, yes, see #1600 (comment). I agree that breaking changes (if any) should first be discussed on the mailing list and with the projects that have already implemented the BIP, particularly for a BIP with final status, then probably go into a new BIP that replaces the previous one. Semver would be for non-breaking changes.

7. 
   akarve commented at 7:16 pm on August 20, 2025: contributor

   Hi @akarve, yes, see #1600 (comment).

   ok this is a topic for another day. i’ll just point out that the situation leading to the above reasoning has since been addressed:

   Furthermore, the BIPs process currently has no way to distinguish BIP versions and the way that has been implemented here is confusing.

8. 
   jonatack commented at 7:29 pm on August 20, 2025: member

   Furthermore, the BIPs process currently has no way to distinguish BIP versions and the way that has been implemented here is confusing.

   Could take a look at BIP3 and propose any improvements there you have in mind.

9. 
   scgbckbone commented at 6:16 am on August 21, 2025: contributor

   NACK

   it’s always 64 bytes as it uses whole hmac-sha512 digest

10. fix: replace Base64 by Base85 encoding in PWD BASE85 section 2fc8da8871
11. ethicnology force-pushed on Aug 21, 2025
12. 
    ethicnology commented at 11:35 am on August 21, 2025: contributor

    it’s always 64 bytes as it uses whole hmac-sha512 digest

    I understand, I was confused with the password length.

    I’ve amended my commit to replace only the Base64 by Base85 in the PWD BASE85 section

13. ethicnology renamed this:
    BIP85: remove hardcoded byte count since the length is variable and corrects Base64/Base85 encoding references
    BIP85: replace Base64 by Base85 encoding in PWD BASE85 section
    on Aug 21, 2025
14. 
    scgbckbone commented at 11:42 am on August 21, 2025: contributor

    @ethicnology could you also unify capitalization on: base64 -> Base64 & base85 -> Base85
15. refactor: unify capitalization 3e9befd444
16. 
    scgbckbone commented at 12:15 pm on August 21, 2025: contributor

    ACK https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/pull/1939/commits/3e9befd44482acb8a13f40dfcd6fd9aec5d01a79
17. jonatack approved
18. 
    jonatack commented at 3:35 pm on August 21, 2025: member

    ACK 3e9befd44482acb8a13f40dfcd6fd9aec5d01a79
19. jonatack removed the label Proposed BIP modification on Aug 21, 2025
20. jonatack added the label Typo-to-be-collected on Aug 21, 2025
21. 
    jonatack commented at 3:38 pm on August 21, 2025: member

    cc @akarve for feedback or sign-off
22. 
    akarve commented at 3:46 pm on August 21, 2025: contributor

    Approved
23. jonatack renamed this:
    BIP85: replace Base64 by Base85 encoding in PWD BASE85 section
    BIP85: replace Base64 by Base85 in PWD BASE85 section
    on Aug 21, 2025
24. jonatack merged this on Aug 21, 2025
25. jonatack closed this on Aug 21, 2025

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26. jonatack removed the label Typo-to-be-collected on Aug 21, 2025

Contributors
ethicnology jonatack akarve scgbckbone