Multiformats

A collection of protocols which aim to future-proof systems, today. They do this mainly by enhancing format values with self-description. This allows interoperability, protocol agility, and helps us avoid lock in.

The self-describing aspects of the protocols have a few stipulations:

• They MUST be in-band (with the value); not out-of-band (in context).
• They MUST avoid lock-in and promote extensibility.
• They MUST be compact and have a binary-packed representation.
• They MUST have a human-readable representation.

Unsigned-varint

VARiable INTeger format used in all the multiformats. The encoding is:

• Unsigned integers are serialized 7 bits at a time, starting with the least significant bits.
• The most significant bit (msb) in each output byte indicates if there is a continuation byte (msb = 1).
• There are no signed integers.
• Integers are minimally encoded.

Refer unsigned-varint spec for details.

Multibase

Base encoding is converting binary-data to plain-text. There are several base-encoding definitions that can convert binary-data to a small subset of, typically, ASCII code. Purpose,

• Printable character set.
• A bridge to backward-compatibility.
• When a channel cannot, do-not, allow binary data.

Refer multibase for details.

Multicodec

Multicodec is an agreed-upon codec table. It is designed for use in binary representations, such as keys or identifiers (i.e CID). Find the canonical table of multicodecs at [table.csv].

Refer multicodec spec for details.

Reference:

List of active multiformat specification(s).

• Micro-site, http://multiformats.io
• Unsigned varint, https://github.com/multiformats/unsigned-varint
• Multicodec, https://github.com/multiformats/multicodec

There are other implementations that can suite your need better:

• rust implementation of multi-base