Like won’t all the possible configurations get used at some point of time or do they get recycled?
In: Technology
QR codes are more or less just a different way to represent text.
There a re a few different schema, but mostly a QR-code is used to print out a compute-readable way to write down something like an URL.
The largest QR-Codes with least amount of redundancy tops out at a few bytes under 3KB of content.
This is far from infinite, but on the other hand, close enough to never runs out for practical purposes.
[This tiny QR code](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Micro_QR_Example.svg) contains 192 bits, which means it can be used to hold 2^192 different combinations, which is about 6*10^(57). For comparison, the number of particles in the universe is about 3*10^(80).
QR codes are not random unique codes, rather, they are encoded bit data. Specific patterns mean different things.
So when you scan a code and get a url, its cause the QR code literally spells out said url
So they don’t run out in the same way that the alphabet doesn’t “run out”, its just a different way of writing things down, that is more readable to computers.
If you have a manual and enough time, you could probably decode them yourself
It’s worth noting that because the message of the QR code is encoded within the QR code itself, and the size of the QR code can be changed to whatever is necessary, this is basically tantamount to saying “will we ever run out of sentences”. Identical QR codes can be generated if the same message is used.
I don’t think QR codes are randomly generated dots or some sort of random encrpytion. QR codes are just ‘encoded’ data and it depends on the data you have. There will be a size limit on how much data a QR code of a specific size can have and if the data exceeds that limit, a bigger QR code is generated.
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