Note: API deprecated. I'm planning to create a new React front end with the new CoinMarketCap API in near future.

Bitcoin Price Alert

Automatically refreshes the current Bitcoin price and plays "You Suffer" by Napalm Death every time it detects a price drop; and plays a cheerful notification whenever the price goes up.

(Inspired by one of my personal favourite TV shows, HBO's Silicon Valley)

• Download the code from my repository and run:

  python3 bitcoin.py

• You might need to install some Python libraries and their dependencies:

  brew install portaudio

  pip install pyaudio

  pip install requests

• Terminal Preview:

• Python function for playing audio file:

def playAudio(filename):
    chunk = 1024
    # wf for wave files
    wf = wave.open(filename, "rb")
    # pa for pyaudio
    pa = pyaudio.PyAudio()

    stream = pa.open(
        format=pa.get_format_from_width(wf.getsampwidth()),
        channels=wf.getnchannels(),
        rate=wf.getframerate(),
        output=True,
    )

    dataStream = wf.readframes(chunk)

    while dataStream:
        stream.write(dataStream)
        dataStream = wf.readframes(chunk)

    stream.close()
    pa.terminate()

• Python function for looking up and printing out the Bitcoin current status:

def lookup():
    api_request = requests.get("https://api.coinmarketcap.com/v1/ticker/?limit=10")
    # Into nicely parsed JSON format:
    api = json.loads(api_request.content)
    global oldPrice
    global newPrice
    global t
    print("~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~")
    for dic in api:
        if dic["symbol"] == "BTC":
            print(
                bcolors.BOLD
                + bcolors.WARNING
                + bcolors.UNDERLINE
                + "< "
                + dic["name"]
                + " ("
                + dic["symbol"]
                + ") >"
                + bcolors.ENDC
            )
            print(
                bcolors.BOLD
                + " * Current price: $"
                + dic["price_usd"]
                + " USD"
                + bcolors.ENDC
            )
            newPrice = float(dic["price_usd"])
            diff = newPrice - oldPrice
            t = dic["last_updated"]
            print("  (Last updated: " + str(datetime.fromtimestamp(float(t))) + ")")
            if diff < 0:
                print(
                    bcolors.RED
                    + "  Price fell by $"
                    + str(diff)
                    + " USD"
                    + bcolors.ENDC
                )
                playAudio("./audio/napalmdeath.wav")
            if diff >= 0 and diff < 5000:
                print(
                    bcolors.GREEN
                    + "  Price rose by $"
                    + str(diff)
                    + " USD"
                    + bcolors.ENDC
                )
                playAudio("./audio/light.wav")
            print(" *1-Hour-Change:")
            if float(dic["percent_change_1h"]) < 0:
                print(
                    bcolors.BOLD
                    + bcolors.RED
                    + "    Dropping"
                    + bcolors.ENDC
                    + " by "
                    + dic["percent_change_1h"]
                    + "%"
                )
            elif float(dic["percent_change_1h"]) > 0:
                print(
                    bcolors.BOLD
                    + bcolors.GREEN
                    + "    Rising"
                    + bcolors.ENDC
                    + " by "
                    + dic["percent_change_1h"]
                    + "%"
                )
            print("~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~")
            oldPrice = newPrice
            api_request = ""
            api = ""

• Importing colours to spice up the output in terminal: (optional)

class bcolors:
    HEADER = "\033[95m"
    BLUE = "\033[94m"
    GREEN = "\033[92m"
    WARNING = "\033[93m"
    RED = "\033[91m"
    ENDC = "\033[0m"
    BOLD = "\033[1m"
    UNDERLINE = "\033[4m"

• Finally, putting the functions into a while loop and loop every second until the API updates the Bitcoin price which is every 5 minutes

while True:
    api_request = requests.get("https://api.coinmarketcap.com/v1/ticker/?limit=10")
    api = json.loads(api_request.content)
    for dic in api:
        if dic["symbol"] == "BTC":
            if float(dic["last_updated"]) > float(t):
                lookup()
    time.sleep(1)