[SOLVED] PHP base64_decode secret key and 401

I am trying to decode the key I get from Settings > Secret keys in PHP using base64_decode, but I keep getting nothing but gibberish encoding.

Original key: UR1EwTysvhOdsZJWmMcaQLPreAPzpS7w1OFMJ/fmGCA= (will be deleted after)
Output after decoding: QD�<�����V��@��x�.���L’��

I am not sure if this is correct (I assume it is), but every time I try to send this encoded using JWT (jwt::encode(payload, $key, HS256…), I get 401.
am I missing something? I tried the following

 $skey = base64_decode("UR1EwTysvhOdsZJWmMcaQLPreAPzpS7w1OFMJ/fmGCA=");
 echo $skey . "<br>";

Changing page encoding
using JWT::urlsafedecode,
replacing /, etc.

Never mind, I was missing channel_id in the payload, and I had to remove ‘U’ from the user_id. Sometimes I just get so desperate to get things done geez :joy:. Please forgive my ignorance.

See also this post

To solve your gibberish message

Thanks