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Show HN: Free API service for crypto and foreign exchange rates

62 points by arzzen 6y ago

davidajackson 6y ago
How does this compare to https://www.sendwyre.com/ https://www.sendwyre.com/? Seems like you have multiple features including some conversion so interested in hearing about the differences.
- xur17 6y ago
  It looks like this is just an api for exchange rates vs sendwyre, which has exchange services.
  - davidajackson 6y ago
    I see, when I read: >API also comes with separate endpoints for single currency conversion and Time-Series data. I thought it meant literally converting, not calculating.
Wowfunhappy 6y ago
Is it possible to retrieve results over HTTP? I'm probably a unique use case, but I'd like to use this to "fix" the exchange rates portion of Apple's currency converter dashboard widget, and I want it to work even on very old OS's. That means I can't use TLS 1.2, and the root certs are often out of date anyway. I'm currently using exchangeratesapi.io, which doesn't support HTTP either, but does support TLS 1.0, so it kind of works. However, outdated root certs mean I need to instruct users to manually install exchangeratesapi's certificate, which I'd rather not do.
- arzzen 6y ago
  Hi, you can use api via http://api-v1.exchangerate.host http://api-v1.exchangerate.host
  - Wowfunhappy 6y ago
    Very cool, thank you!
AnonC 6y ago
Your website looks good. The examples in several languages is also a nice touch (expected from API documentation). I do have plenty of questions though. Does this service get historical rates from its sources in real time or does it store those in its own local database? How long will this service be free for? What’s the business model that’s being thought about? What kind of rate limiting, if any, is used so that a developer who uses these APIs doesn’t have their app go down because someone else is hammering the server with a lot of requests?
- arzzen 6y ago
  hi, thanks for question, > Does this service get historical rates from its sources in real time or does it store those in its own local database? Historical data are stored and synchronized at regular intervals in the local db. > How long will this service be free for? What’s the business model that’s being thought about? I was looking for stable service and i did not find any, that would have satisfied my needs, so i decidide create myself. Current features will be as free in the future as they are now. > What kind of rate limiting, if any, is used so that a developer who uses these APIs doesn’t have their app go down because someone else is hammering the server with a lot of requests? Yes, there are rate limit, currently 300 per minute, you can see it in the response header.
zwarag 6y ago
I like the illustration of the people building the application a lot. Is there a name for this type of image? Say I'd like to hire someone to make one of these images, what would I be searching for?
- yboris 6y ago
  Perhaps search through https://dribbble.com/ https://dribbble.com/ - this style is currently very popular. Perhaps search for "isometric".
- gruez 6y ago
  Seems to be a stock photo. If you reverse image search it on google there's hundreds of hits.
gkoberger 6y ago
I was looking for this exact thing a few weeks ago, and couldn't believe how difficult it was to find a decent, free API for crypto exchange rates (I just wanted to write a little script that tracked my investments, nothing huge.) (Also, I'm the founder of ReadMe; we do API docs... if you want to use us, my emails in my bio :) )
- Osiris 6y ago
  Out of curiosity, what would such an API look like? Would you provide xpubs for various coins and get back current balances and transaction history?
d33lio 6y ago
Very slick site! In a previous life I worked in the crypto transaction tracing space, I ended up building my own tool to do what your API does, but this is much more polished than my tool haha. Very curious about the front-end! I'd get many more side-projects out the door if I understood the path to get a polished landing page / front-end like yours!
- sketchthat 6y ago
  Came here to say the same thing. The frontend looks super slick. Is it a purchased theme or did you build it yourself? All my personal projects fall over with my poor design and frontend skills.
xfalcox 6y ago
How frequently you update rates for intra day foreign exchanges? let's say USD -> EUR
7ewis 6y ago
Where do you get your cryptocurrency prices from? What's the daily run rate like, sustainable? I see you have GitHub donations, is that covering costs currently?
de6u99er 6y ago
Thanks for sharing, that's really useful. I realized you did the javascript example using XHR Any reason why you didn't use fetch? ``` fetch(url) .then((resp) => resp.json()) .then((data) => { console.log(data) }) ``` instead of ``` var requestURL = 'https://api.exchangerate.host/latest'; https://api.exchangerate.host/latest'; var request = new XMLHttpRequest(); request.open('GET', requestURL); request.responseType = 'json'; request.send(); request.onload = function() { var response = request.response; console.log(response); } ```
- aaomidi 6y ago
  fetch isn't universally supported.
tradertef 6y ago
How do you plan to make money?
ASVVVAD 6y ago
self plug: an easy to use go library built on this with smart optional caching https://github.com/asvvvad/exchange https://github.com/asvvvad/exchange
aaomidi 6y ago
I've been wanting something like this for so long...
ejanus 6y ago
Great, I am look for stuff like this. Can you connect to oracle to make it easy to integrate with Solidity contract ?

62 points by arzzen 6y ago

How does this compare to https://www.sendwyre.com/ https://www.sendwyre.com/? Seems like you have multiple features including some conversion so interested in hearing about the differences.

xur17 6y ago
It looks like this is just an api for exchange rates vs sendwyre, which has exchange services.
- davidajackson 6y ago
  I see, when I read: >API also comes with separate endpoints for single currency conversion and Time-Series data. I thought it meant literally converting, not calculating.

Wowfunhappy 6y ago

Is it possible to retrieve results over HTTP? I'm probably a unique use case, but I'd like to use this to "fix" the exchange rates portion of Apple's currency converter dashboard widget, and I want it to work even on very old OS's. That means I can't use TLS 1.2, and the root certs are often out of date anyway. I'm currently using exchangeratesapi.io, which doesn't support HTTP either, but does support TLS 1.0, so it kind of works. However, outdated root certs mean I need to instruct users to manually install exchangeratesapi's certificate, which I'd rather not do.

arzzen 6y ago
Hi, you can use api via http://api-v1.exchangerate.host http://api-v1.exchangerate.host
- Wowfunhappy 6y ago
  Very cool, thank you!

AnonC 6y ago

Your website looks good. The examples in several languages is also a nice touch (expected from API documentation). I do have plenty of questions though. Does this service get historical rates from its sources in real time or does it store those in its own local database? How long will this service be free for? What’s the business model that’s being thought about? What kind of rate limiting, if any, is used so that a developer who uses these APIs doesn’t have their app go down because someone else is hammering the server with a lot of requests?

arzzen 6y ago
hi, thanks for question, > Does this service get historical rates from its sources in real time or does it store those in its own local database? Historical data are stored and synchronized at regular intervals in the local db. > How long will this service be free for? What’s the business model that’s being thought about? I was looking for stable service and i did not find any, that would have satisfied my needs, so i decidide create myself. Current features will be as free in the future as they are now. > What kind of rate limiting, if any, is used so that a developer who uses these APIs doesn’t have their app go down because someone else is hammering the server with a lot of requests? Yes, there are rate limit, currently 300 per minute, you can see it in the response header.

zwarag 6y ago

I like the illustration of the people building the application a lot. Is there a name for this type of image? Say I'd like to hire someone to make one of these images, what would I be searching for?

yboris 6y ago
Perhaps search through https://dribbble.com/ https://dribbble.com/ - this style is currently very popular. Perhaps search for "isometric".
gruez 6y ago
Seems to be a stock photo. If you reverse image search it on google there's hundreds of hits.

gkoberger 6y ago

I was looking for this exact thing a few weeks ago, and couldn't believe how difficult it was to find a decent, free API for crypto exchange rates (I just wanted to write a little script that tracked my investments, nothing huge.) (Also, I'm the founder of ReadMe; we do API docs... if you want to use us, my emails in my bio :) )

Osiris 6y ago
Out of curiosity, what would such an API look like? Would you provide xpubs for various coins and get back current balances and transaction history?

d33lio 6y ago

Very slick site! In a previous life I worked in the crypto transaction tracing space, I ended up building my own tool to do what your API does, but this is much more polished than my tool haha. Very curious about the front-end! I'd get many more side-projects out the door if I understood the path to get a polished landing page / front-end like yours!

sketchthat 6y ago
Came here to say the same thing. The frontend looks super slick. Is it a purchased theme or did you build it yourself? All my personal projects fall over with my poor design and frontend skills.

xfalcox 6y ago

How frequently you update rates for intra day foreign exchanges? let's say USD -> EUR

7ewis 6y ago

Where do you get your cryptocurrency prices from? What's the daily run rate like, sustainable? I see you have GitHub donations, is that covering costs currently?

de6u99er 6y ago

Thanks for sharing, that's really useful. I realized you did the javascript example using XHR Any reason why you didn't use fetch? ``` fetch(url) .then((resp) => resp.json()) .then((data) => { console.log(data) }) ``` instead of ``` var requestURL = 'https://api.exchangerate.host/latest'; https://api.exchangerate.host/latest'; var request = new XMLHttpRequest(); request.open('GET', requestURL); request.responseType = 'json'; request.send(); request.onload = function() { var response = request.response; console.log(response); } ```

aaomidi 6y ago
fetch isn't universally supported.

tradertef 6y ago

How do you plan to make money?

ASVVVAD 6y ago

self plug: an easy to use go library built on this with smart optional caching https://github.com/asvvvad/exchange https://github.com/asvvvad/exchange

aaomidi 6y ago

I've been wanting something like this for so long...

ejanus 6y ago

Great, I am look for stuff like this. Can you connect to oracle to make it easy to integrate with Solidity contract ?