Bitcoin Forum

Let me present this weekend's project: BTCtoX.org (http://btctox.org/).

It gives a quick calculator to convert BTC to and from other currencies.

Features:
 - Supports 159 currencies (http://openexchangerates.org/latest.json)
 - You can bookmark a quick link to convert  and [url=http://btctox.org/tobtc#ILS]to (http://btctox.org/frombtc#ILS) from your favorite currency
 - Supports mobile, sort of (the page doesn't look completely crappy on mobile, only moderately crappy)
 - API (http://btctox.org/api)
 - Open Source (https://github.com/ripper234/BTCtoX)

Please submit bugs and feature requests on github (https://github.com/ripper234/BTCtoX/issues).

Nice. Could you build in weighted prices at 24h, 7d, 30d for the API?

Does mtgox have this?
If so, then I could... However, it won't reflect part flirtations in the rate of the fiat currencies.

http://bitcoincharts.com/t/weighted_prices.json

Would this be helpful?

Yeah, looks good. I will post when I have updates.

Nice app ripper234  :)

Thanks. It was a bit slow to load for me today, not sure it's because of my mobile internet speed or inherent slowness.
I would like to cache the results of the API calls for a few minutes ... I've noticed that Mt. Gox API is a bit slow, and returns errors sometimes. Also under consideration is a nicer design, although this is not critical.

Is this a theoretical need, or would you actually use it if I added it?

I'm always using weighted prices to help with the volatility issue, so yea, I'd use it.

Also, can you tell me what's up with VND? It displays a 0.00 in the drop down and only gives a rate when going from btc.

Cool, I didn't know you were actually using the API yet. I see a bit of traffic on Google Analytics, but I haven't measured the API usage yet.

I'll get it done tomorrow.

Regarding VND - it works for me from VND to BTC as well, it's just the exchange rate is so low that is it's rounded off in the display.
The actual calculation should be fine though - just put high enough numbers.

(I am truncating the number of BTCs displayed, I think anything lower than 0.001 BTC is not interesting).

I just deployed a new version with these improvements:

1. Fixed the API documentation page, it didn't work well.
2. Added weighted average over 1,7,30 days to the API (not to the app itself ... not sure it's needed there, and the app should be redesigned in a nicer way anyway).
3. Added caching! I discovered that BitcoinCharts doesn't like it when API requests are made more than once every 15 minutes... so now I'm caching all outgoing API requests to speed up the process. BitcoinCharts data will be cached for 16 minutes, Mt. Gox and Open Exhcange will be cached for 2 minutes just to get a speed boost.

I'm particularly happy about bullet number 3, because it gave me a chance to play around with Memcached for the first time (it's a bit of an overkill for this project, but it's really simple using Play Framework & Heroku, so I wanted to give it a try ... and it was really easy to implement & deploy).

Please give it a test drive and report any issues.

Ron

It strikes me how many Bitcoin services are using the Twitter Boostrap.

It's not just Bitcoin services, it's becoming really popular.

This is an idea, since I'm not in trading -- but if there was an API to retrieve a dump of prices in many exchanges, one could build a graph structure and try to compute a cycle of trade to make money.  For example, I know that I can buy bitcoin at the cavirtex for CAD for less than mtgox, then sell it for USD on mtgox, move the money accross the border back to canada with RBC USA free cross-border transfer, and be in net profit.  Of course there are commission fees in the exchanges, but it is a matter to have all the data quickly retrieved in one location, and running some search and optimization code on it.  Since you are querying all those exchanges anyways, maybe you can bunch up all the data into one json, and allow people to make such an application of off your api?

This is out of scope for BTCtoX. I'm not actually getting information about the direct BTC-X exchange rate, but rather going through an intermediary - I'm getting the BTC to USD rate, and then converting USD to all currencies - so I don't have the direct exchange rates.

Also, it's not a goal for me to create such a service.

Rate is super broken for BTCto SLL . It says that 1BTC is 27813.302 SLL whereas it's roughly 1740SLL on average.

According to Google, 1 U.S. dollar = 4 347.82609 Sierra Leonean leones
Times Mt. Gox's 6.37139 $ per BTC, the result is 27701.69 SLL per BTC.

Perhaps you are thinking of another currency?

Ah, indeed. SLL is also an abbreviation for the Second Life Linden.

Thought so. I should really add the full name of the currency (I don't have it in the API I'm using, I'll have to find it from another source).

Thanks Ripper, great Job !!

What about adding alternative Criptocurencies like NMC, DVC, I0C, IXC ? Vircurex  https://vircurex.com has a API for that

Good idea, I'll add this when I get a chance - thanks for the feedback.

+1 for the weighted prices from bitcoincharts.

Also, if you don't mind, have a look at http://www.oanda.com/currency/converter/ and the functionality the site offers (switching currencies, applyin percentages).

I have no idea how it's done though ;-)


 

FYI, the service was down for a some time now because OpenExchangeRates.org changed their API (added a requirement for an API key).

I subscribed for a free key, and btctox is up again.
If you use the service, please notify on further disruption.

Ron

Could you provide a direct BTC <=> EUR rate instead of going through USD conversion?
=> http://bitcoinpara.de/rates/calc.php (http://bitcoinpara.de/rates/calc.php)

I don't understand the relevancy of the URL.
The currently support direct conversion at the UI level ... the displayed rate may differ due to arbitrage.
I have no immediate plans to add a more accurate BTC <=> EUR rate.

But ... you can always submit a pull request (remember, this is open source).