Re:Show HN: Free API service for crypto and foreign exchange...
by Wowfunhappy on Wednesday July 22, 2020 @12:59PM
(#23919046)
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widget, and I want it to work even on very old OS's. That means I can't use TLS 1.2, and the root certs are often out of date anyway.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 However, outdated root certs mean I need to instruct users to manually install exchangeratesapi's certificate, which I'd rather not do.
Re:Show HN: Free API service for crypto and foreign exchange...
by gkoberger on Wednesday July 22, 2020 @03:05PM
(#23920431)
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 :) )
```
var requestURL = 'https://api.exchangerate.host/latest';
var request = new XMLHttpRequest();
request.open('GET', requestURL);
request.responseType = 'json';
Re:Show HN: Free API service for crypto and foreign exchange...
by AnonC on Wednesday July 22, 2020 @01:18PM
(#23919289)
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?
Re:Show HN: Free API service for crypto and foreign exchange...
by arzzen on Wednesday July 22, 2020 @01:29PM
(#23919409)
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.
Re:Show HN: Free API service for crypto and foreign exchange...
by d33lio on Wednesday July 22, 2020 @03:35PM
(#23920706)
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!
Re:Show HN: Free API service for crypto and foreign exchange...
by davidajackson on Wednesday July 22, 2020 @11:32AM
(#23918098)
How does this compare to https://www.sendwyre.com/?
Seems like you have multiple features including some conversion so interested in hearing about the differences.
Re:Show HN: Free API service for crypto and foreign exchange...
by zwarag on Wednesday July 22, 2020 @01:30PM
(#23919422)
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?
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.
(Also, I'm the founder of ReadMe; we do API docs... if you want to use us, my emails in my bio :) )
``` fetch(url) .then((resp) => resp.json()) .then((data) => { console.log(data) }) ```
instead of
``` var requestURL = '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); } ```
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?
> 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.
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!
All my personal projects fall over with my poor design and frontend skills.
I thought it meant literally converting, not calculating.
What's the daily run rate like, sustainable? I see you have GitHub donations, is that covering costs currently?