Unlike common security mechanisms, such as encryption, obscuring, and hiding, the JWT doesn't encrypt or hide the data contained within. But, it does the destination system to check whether the token is from an authentic source. The structure of the JWT consists of a header, payload, and a signature. As mentioned, rather than encryption, the data contained within the JWT is encoded and then signed. Encoding does the job of transforming the data in a way that is acceptable by a variety of parties and signing allows us to check for its authenticity and, in fact, its origin:

JWT = header.payload.signature

Let's go into more detail about each of the components constituting the token.