Get Ethereum Value from Command Line

Last year I got big into Bitcoin; today I own a few dozen bitcoin and am loving my return.  Recently I've been hearing big things about Ethereum, another cryptocurrency.  Ethereum is in its infancy and has hit some troublesome times recently due to a hack but hey -- at its roughly $10 value now, if it ever hits bitcoin-type heights, you could be in for a great return on investment.  A while back I wrote a few scripts to get bitcoin value so I thought I'd repeat that post for getting Ether value!

Get Ether Value from Command Line

I use a snippet of python to to grab the value of ether from command line:

curl -s https://coinmarketcap-nexuist.rhcloud.com/api/eth | python -c "import json, sys; print(json.load(sys.stdin)['price']['usd']")

Since you buy ether with bitcoin, getting its bitcoin value may be more of value:

curl -s https://coinmarketcap-nexuist.rhcloud.com/api/eth | python -c "import json, sys; print(json.load(sys.stdin)['price']['btc'])"

Get Either Value with Node.js

You can use a library like Request for making the API request but to avoid dependency you can use the base Node.js API:

var http = require('http');

http.get({
        host: 'coinmarketcap-nexuist.rhcloud.com',
        path: '/api/eth'
        },
        function(response) {
                // Continuously update stream with data
                var body = '';
                response.on('data', function(d) { body += d; });
                response.on('end', function() {

                        // Data reception is done, do whatever with it!
                        var parsed = JSON.parse(body);
                        console.log(parsed.price.usd);
                });
        }
);

Cryptocurrency lovers will hate on me for talking about bitcoin and ether in terms of USD dollar price but I still see these cryptocurrencies as a short term investment right now.  Many online stores don't accept bitcoin yet so I don't see a great application right now.  Whatever your reason for wanting to know the price of ether, these scripts will be what you need!