diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index a337044fad..04b6b3a282 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,6 +2,15 @@
 
 All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file. See [standard-version](https://github.com/conventional-changelog/standard-version) for commit guidelines.
 
+## [1.22.1](https://github.com/panva/jose/compare/v1.22.0...v1.22.1) (2020-02-03)
+
+
+### Bug Fixes
+
+* actually remove the base64url proper encoding check ([eae01b5](https://github.com/panva/jose/commit/eae01b57ab9f33e8c621ffcd2a77d513a51d22b2))
+
+
+
 # [1.22.0](https://github.com/panva/jose/compare/v1.21.1...v1.22.0) (2020-01-29)
 
 
diff --git a/lib/help/base64url.js b/lib/help/base64url.js
index 29467146cd..0aded8da15 100644
--- a/lib/help/base64url.js
+++ b/lib/help/base64url.js
@@ -1,7 +1,3 @@
-const { JOSEInvalidEncoding } = require('../errors')
-
-const b64uRegExp = /^[a-zA-Z0-9_-]*$/
-
 const fromBase64 = (base64) => {
   return base64.replace(/=/g, '').replace(/\+/g, '-').replace(/\//g, '_')
 }
@@ -15,10 +11,6 @@ const encodeBuffer = (buf) => {
 }
 
 const decodeToBuffer = (input) => {
-  if (!b64uRegExp.test(input)) {
-    throw new JOSEInvalidEncoding('input is not a valid base64url encoded string')
-  }
-
   return Buffer.from(input, 'base64')
 }
 
diff --git a/lib/jwa/ecdsa.js b/lib/jwa/ecdsa.js
index db9645dfa8..1258afcdb5 100644
--- a/lib/jwa/ecdsa.js
+++ b/lib/jwa/ecdsa.js
@@ -13,13 +13,6 @@ if (dsaEncodingSupported) {
   sign = (jwaAlg, nodeAlg, { [KEYOBJECT]: keyObject }, payload) => {
     return signOneShot(nodeAlg, payload, { key: asInput(keyObject, false), dsaEncoding: 'ieee-p1363' })
   }
-} else {
-  sign = (jwaAlg, nodeAlg, { [KEYOBJECT]: keyObject }, payload) => {
-    return derToJose(createSign(nodeAlg).update(payload).sign(asInput(keyObject, false)), jwaAlg)
-  }
-}
-
-if (dsaEncodingSupported) {
   verify = (jwaAlg, nodeAlg, { [KEYOBJECT]: keyObject }, payload, signature) => {
     try {
       return verifyOneShot(nodeAlg, payload, { key: asInput(keyObject, true), dsaEncoding: 'ieee-p1363' }, signature)
@@ -28,6 +21,9 @@ if (dsaEncodingSupported) {
     }
   }
 } else {
+  sign = (jwaAlg, nodeAlg, { [KEYOBJECT]: keyObject }, payload) => {
+    return derToJose(createSign(nodeAlg).update(payload).sign(asInput(keyObject, false)), jwaAlg)
+  }
   verify = (jwaAlg, nodeAlg, { [KEYOBJECT]: keyObject }, payload, signature) => {
     try {
       return createVerify(nodeAlg).update(payload).verify(asInput(keyObject, true), joseToDer(signature, jwaAlg))
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 59d55e6b8e..100b41ab1d 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "jose",
-  "version": "1.22.0",
+  "version": "1.22.1",
   "description": "JSON Web Almost Everything - JWA, JWS, JWE, JWK, JWT, JWKS for Node.js with minimal dependencies",
   "keywords": [
     "access token",