public function generatePadID(): string
    {
        $chars = "0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";
        $length = 16;
        $padID = "";

        for ($i = 0; $i < $length; $i++) {
            $padID .= $chars[rand() % strlen($chars)];
        }

        return $padID;
    }