diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index cf0a16b..cadcc92 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -140,6 +140,26 @@ dependencies = [
  "os_str_bytes",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "const_format"
+version = "0.2.26"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "939dc9e2eb9077e0679d2ce32de1ded8531779360b003b4a972a7a39ec263495"
+dependencies = [
+ "const_format_proc_macros",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "const_format_proc_macros"
+version = "0.2.22"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "ef196d5d972878a48da7decb7686eded338b4858fbabeed513d63a7c98b2b82d"
+dependencies = [
+ "proc-macro2",
+ "quote",
+ "unicode-xid",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "core2"
 version = "0.4.0"
@@ -666,6 +686,30 @@ version = "1.1.0"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "43b2853a4d09f215c24cc5489c992ce46052d359b5109343cbafbf26bc62f8a3"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "sscanf"
+version = "0.3.1"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "5ecdd7ea17bcadebf81d656db919f58f96c1d194d748cf0839a44a220123eedd"
+dependencies = [
+ "const_format",
+ "lazy_static",
+ "regex",
+ "sscanf_macro",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "sscanf_macro"
+version = "0.3.1"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "fe2309d255caf220c1ff9f380d89420a1377de1cabc1d57e0b308e53b0406bed"
+dependencies = [
+ "proc-macro2",
+ "quote",
+ "regex-syntax",
+ "syn",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "static_assertions"
 version = "1.1.0"
@@ -832,6 +876,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "once_cell",
  "serde",
  "serde_json",
+ "sscanf",
  "waku-sys",
 ]
 
diff --git a/waku/Cargo.toml b/waku/Cargo.toml
index 0c23ead..07d8568 100644
--- a/waku/Cargo.toml
+++ b/waku/Cargo.toml
@@ -12,4 +12,5 @@ multiaddr = "0.14"
 once_cell = "1.15"
 serde = { version = "1.0", features = ["derive"] }
 serde_json = "1.0"
+sscanf = "0.3"
 waku-sys = { path = "../waku-sys" }
diff --git a/waku/src/general/mod.rs b/waku/src/general/mod.rs
index d6de08b..3a90695 100644
--- a/waku/src/general/mod.rs
+++ b/waku/src/general/mod.rs
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 // std
+use std::fmt::{Display, Formatter};
+use std::str::FromStr;
 // crates
 use serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};
+use sscanf::{scanf, RegexRepresentation};
 // internal
 
 pub type PubsubTopic = String;
@@ -132,3 +135,68 @@ pub struct MessageIndex {
     /// The pubsub topic of the message at this [`MessageIndex`]
     pubsub_topic: PubsubTopic,
 }
+
+pub enum Encoding {
+    Proto,
+    Rlp,
+    Rfc26,
+}
+
+impl Display for Encoding {
+    fn fmt(&self, f: &mut Formatter<'_>) -> std::fmt::Result {
+        let s = match self {
+            Encoding::Proto => "proto",
+            Encoding::Rlp => "rlp",
+            Encoding::Rfc26 => "rfc26",
+        };
+        f.write_str(s)
+    }
+}
+
+impl FromStr for Encoding {
+    type Err = String;
+
+    fn from_str(s: &str) -> std::result::Result<Self, Self::Err> {
+        match s.to_lowercase().as_str() {
+            "proto" => Ok(Self::Proto),
+            "rlp" => Ok(Self::Rlp),
+            "rfc26" => Ok(Self::Rfc26),
+            encoding => Err(format!("Unrecognized encoding: {}", encoding)),
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+impl RegexRepresentation for Encoding {
+    const REGEX: &'static str = r"\w";
+}
+
+pub struct WakuPubsubTopic {
+    application_name: String,
+    version: usize,
+    content_topic_name: String,
+    encoding: Encoding,
+}
+
+impl FromStr for WakuPubsubTopic {
+    type Err = String;
+
+    fn from_str(s: &str) -> std::result::Result<Self, Self::Err> {
+        if let Ok((application_name, version, content_topic_name, encoding)) =
+            scanf!(s, "{}/{}/{}/{}", String, usize, String, Encoding)
+        {
+            Ok(WakuPubsubTopic {
+                application_name,
+                version,
+                content_topic_name,
+                encoding,
+            })
+        } else {
+            Err(
+                format!(
+                    "Wrong pub-sub topic format. Should be `/{{application-name}}/{{version-of-the-application}}/{{content-topic-name}}/{{encoding}}`. Got: {}", 
+                    s
+                )
+            )
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/waku/src/node/peers.rs b/waku/src/node/peers.rs
index 59188b4..9594dac 100644
--- a/waku/src/node/peers.rs
+++ b/waku/src/node/peers.rs
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 // std
-use std::ffi::{c_char, CStr, CString};
+use std::ffi::{CStr, CString};
 use std::time::Duration;
 // crates
 use multiaddr::Multiaddr;