A Bitcoin price ticker for old phones, tablets, and spare monitors. One job: display the live BTC price in 1 of 6 currencies, in large thin type, full-screen. No ads, no accounts, no clutter, no telemetry.
Hardware tickers like Coinkite's Blockclock and Blockclock Mini cost $100–$400 and are another gadget on the desk. This is the free alternative: repurpose a device you already own. If it runs a browser, it runs this.
| Hardware ticker | btc-ticker | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | $100–$400 | $0 |
| Hardware | A new device | Anything with a browser |
| Ads / tracking | Varies | None |
| Currencies | Varies | AUD, USD, EUR, GBP, JPY, NZD |
One static page: plain HTML, CSS, and vanilla JS. No libraries, no build step. It streams trades from the Binance spot WebSocket, converts through exchangerate-api.com (cached locally for 12 hours), and refreshes the display every 3 seconds so the price breathes instead of flickering. The browser's native Wake Lock API keeps the screen awake.
- Any device with a modern browser
- An internet connection
Open index.html. No server needed.
Tap the screen once after loading; browsers require one interaction before the wake lock can engage.
Change currency: tap the gear icon (⚙️) in the top right.
Hodl multiplier: append #<number> to the URL to show what your stack is worth rather than the per-coin price. #2.1 tracks 2.1 BTC live, in whichever currency you pick. Decimals are dropped while the multiplier is active.
For a dedicated-device feel: add the page to your home screen (Android/iOS) or press F11 (desktop).
- BitcoinWatch: this idea taken further for bitcoin: a live network display with block height, price, sats per dollar, mempool, and halving countdown. Same rules: no backend, no trackers, nothing but the numbers.
- MoneroWatch: this idea taken further: a live Monero network display with block height, hashrate, and XMR price. Same rules: no backend, no trackers, nothing but the numbers.