Why would you use Base32 instead of Base64 encoding?

Recently, there was a conference, and it was mentioned that Base64 encoding, was being replaced with Base32 encoding. The immediate question, is why, especially as Base64 is widely accepted.

The reason for both Base64 and Base32 encoding, is to offer data safety through transportation

Base32 uses more space – a disadvantage

Compared to Base64, Base32 uses roughly 20 % more space however, its main advantage is, that it is more human-readable.

The main reason Base32 is used, is to avoid human error.

UPPER CASE HERE WE COME! – an advantage

One important and simple reason and why Base32 even exists is that it uses A-Z uppercase only (no lowercase) and the numbers 2-7. No 0189. 26 + 6 chars = 32.

There are no lowercase letters and no digits 0189 so “i” “l” “I” and “1” are not confused. There is only I.

Confusion between B and 8, and 0 and O is also eliminated.

If 0 was entered, it can be treated as a O.

But what is clear, the human error non-unique interpretation of the string is reduced significantly. This is not the case with Base64.

All of the above issues with upper and lowercase and numbers being confused all apply to Base64.

Online Base32 encoding

https://emn178.github.io/online-tools/base32_encode.html

Reference

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/50082075/totp-base32-vs-base64