Epistemic Status: 
Sprouting - This is a zettelkasten-style card about a concept I’m learning about.
Proquints, or pronouncable quintuplets. are a way to encode numerical data in a human readable format. For example, an IP address can be encoded using a proquint to provide an easier to read identifier:
- 127.0.0.1 becomes
lusab-babad - 1.1.1.1 becomes
bahad-bahad - 192.168.196.2 becomes
safom-sibaf
A sha256 hash of “whatever” can be encoded this way:
85738F8F9A7F1B04B5329C590EBCB9E425925C6D0984089C43A022DE4F19C281becomesmijug-muvaz-nonuz-dosah-rihuf-nudin-bupus-roloh-fikif-judot-bokah-bofis-havob-fariv-husin-sapad
It’s not as efficient as hexadecimal but the goals are different.
It encodes 16-bit blocks of data into 5-character strings of alternating consonant-vowels and a final consonant, resulting in an information density of 3.2 (or 3.03 if you include the hyphens) which is denser than regular English text.
I learned about these a while ago from Upspin but I keep forgetting where I saw it or what they’re called so I’m making a card for it.