If you are here I am guessing that you too jumped on the bitcoin
train and that's why you consume anything you can find on the subject, including this article. Yeah, you and me too, I got roped in after seeing this tweet from Elon Musk:
Because bitcoin
is so volatile and valuable (for the moment) you can have huge swings within hours and if you want to do some trading during those peaks and valleys you inevitably get into constantly checking websites or some live ticker app, or worse, you might even have push notifications enabled ... so you end up in distraction hell, just ask Elon.
TL;DR version
Can you focus on work when owning Bitcoin?
YES you can!
Just take away all the unnecessary convoluted, distracting and time consuming steps.
OK, so what did I do to remove this distraction?
I made the conversion rate between BTC
and EUR
visible in my BASH
prompt because, of course I did, I always have at least one instance open ( and probably so do you ):
This allows me to have the information in the corner of my eye, bare bones with no distraction. I don't have any cognitive effort and I don't switch the context.
To do this, I wrote a few lines of SHELL
script and with it I can configure my prompt to display whatever I need:
- how much is my current portfolio worth?
- how much is X amount worth? (when buying / selling)
- it's extensible to other crypto currencies
- it's easy to setup
- anyone can pick up where I left off
The long(er) version
I tagged this article ( at least the hands on part ) as intermediate
, assuming that you know the concepts used to build this:
- what the
.bashrc
file is - how the
$PS1
environment variable is constructed - how to use the
curl
command - how to use the
bc
command -
shell
scripring
Step 1 - teaching BASH a new trick
Extend the .bashrc
file (or any other file that your BASH consumes when starting up):
mbtc ()
{
KEUR=$(curl -s 'https://blockchain.info/tobtc?currency=EUR&value=1000')
MINE="${1}" # amount of BTC you want to monitor
CALC=$(echo "scale=3; $MINE/$KEUR" | bc -q)
echo "${CALC}k €"
}
Now your linux
knows a new "command" called mbtc
that accepts a parameter, this is the amount of BTC
you want converted into KILO EUROS
or k €
By adjusting the value
parameter from the curl GET call to the public blockchain.info API you can transform other quantities, just be careful to adjust the calculation string that is later passed to bc
Step 2 - start BTC/EUR monitoring
Check your current $PS1
variable value:
echo $PS1
Create a file with the amount of BTC
you want to monitor in your prompt:
echo "0.1234" > ~/btc.count
Now redefine the PS1
variable also by editing the ~/.bashrc
file, by adding a subshell
call inside of the existing prompt:
($(mbtc $(cat ~/btc.count)))
What next ?
Now you can rest assured, you will always know the up to date value of a Bitcoin or any other amount you want to monitor, just write the value in the ~/btc.count
Of course these concepts work just as well with any other shell
implementation, you just need to edit the corresponding equivalent files.
All that is left for me to do is to wish you happy monitoring! Let me know if you were able to use this or if you were able to enhance or build something completely new on top of this.
#staysafe #peace #coderforever
Vio.
Top comments (1)
HA!
Now is the perfect time to have this since the price is all over the place.