Instant trade all your NMC to BTC on CEX.ioConsole application [VB + Newtonsoft Json library]

This little application checks your NMC (NameCoin) balance,  gets the last price from ticker and places order* on all your NMC to sell for BTC.

*) It places the order, but doesn't check if and when it is completed. Ususally it goes thru instantly when using the last price.

If you want to get other price from ticker to use, you can use following parameters for that:

last - last BTC price
high - last 24 hours price high
low - last 24 hours price low
bid - highest buy order
ask - lowest sell order
Change green coloured the text in code.

You'll need Newtonsoft JSON library for parsing the json response from server.
http://json.codeplex.com/

1. Make new Console application in VB and copy/paste this code below.
2. Reference the Newtonsoft.dll to application
3. Fill in (see the corresponding colours in the code) your username, API key and API secret from CEX.io -> Profile -> API
When creating the API key you must check at least the Account balance and Place order checkboxes.
API secret is shown before you activate the key, be sure to copy that, it will not be shown after the activation!

Imports System Imports System.IO Imports System.Security.Cryptography Imports System.Net Imports System.Text Imports Newtonsoft.Json Imports Newtonsoft.Json.Linq Module Module1     Sub Main()         Dim balance As String = getdata("https://cex.io/api/balance/")         Dim price As String = getdata("https://cex.io/api/ticker/NMC/BTC")         Dim pricevalues As Newtonsoft.Json.Linq.JObject         pricevalues = JObject.Parse(price)         Dim balancevalues As Newtonsoft.Json.Linq.JObject         balancevalues = JObject.Parse(balance)         Dim bal, last As String         Try             bal = balancevalues.GetValue("NMC")("available")             last = pricevalues.GetValue("last")         Catch ex As Exception             Console.WriteLine(ex.ToString)         End Try         drawline()         Console.WriteLine(Now.ToLongTimeString)         Console.WriteLine("Account balance NMC: " & bal & " NMC")         Console.WriteLine("Last price 1 NMC = " & last & " BTC")         drawline()         If CDbl(bal) > 0 Then             Console.WriteLine("ORDER PLACED - Server response:")             Console.WriteLine(getdata("https://cex.io/api/place_order/NMC/BTC", bal, last))         Else             Console.WriteLine("Balance NMC = 0, no order placed")         End If         Console.ReadKey()     End Sub     Sub drawline()         Dim strC As String         strC = New String("-"c, 80)         Console.WriteLine(strC)     End Sub     Function getdata(ByVal URL As String, Optional ByVal bal As String = "", Optional ByVal last As String = "")         Dim G_USERNAME As String = "username"         Dim G_APIKEY As String = "API key"         Dim G_APIKEY_SECRET As String = "API secret"         Dim nonce = Get_Nonce()         Dim message As String         Dim signature = hash_sha256(nonce & G_USERNAME & G_APIKEY, G_APIKEY_SECRET)         If bal = "" Or last = "" Then             message = "key=" & G_APIKEY & "&" & "nonce=" & nonce & "&" & "signature=" & signature         Else             message = "key=" & G_APIKEY & "&" & "nonce=" & nonce & "&" & "signature=" & signature & "&type=sell&price=" & last & "&amount=" & bal         End If         getdata = sourcestring(URL, message)     End Function     Function hash_sha256(ByVal StringToHash, ByVal KeyForHash) As Object         Dim sha256, ObjUTF8, hmac         ObjUTF8 = CreateObject("System.Text.UTF8Encoding")         sha256 = CreateObject("system.security.cryptography.HMACSHA256")         sha256.Key = ObjUTF8.GetBytes(KeyForHash)         hmac = sha256.ComputeHash(ObjUTF8.GetBytes(StringToHash))         sha256.Clear()         Dim a         Dim b = hmac.length         For Each c As Byte In hmac             a += Strings.Right("0" & Conversion.Hex(c), 2)         Next         Return UCase(a)     End Function     Function Get_Nonce() As Long         Dim centuryBegin As Date = #1/1/2014#         Dim currentDate As Date = Date.Now         Dim elapsedTicks As Long = currentDate.Ticks - centuryBegin.Ticks         Return elapsedTicks     End Function     Function sourcestring(ByVal url, ByVal message) As String         Dim request As WebRequest = WebRequest.Create(url)         request.Method = "POST"         Dim byteArray As Byte() = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(message)         request.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"         request.ContentLength = byteArray.Length         Dim dataStream As Stream = request.GetRequestStream()         dataStream.Write(byteArray, 0, byteArray.Length)         dataStream.Close()         Try             Dim response As WebResponse = request.GetResponse()             ' BEGIN DEBUG --------------------Uncomment below to get debuginfo------------------------             'drawline()             'Console.WriteLine("==== Debug info ====")             'Console.WriteLine(url.ToString)             'Console.WriteLine(Replace(message, "&", System.Environment.NewLine))             'Console.WriteLine("HTTP STATUS: " & CType(response, HttpWebResponse).StatusDescription)             '-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------             dataStream = response.GetResponseStream()             Dim reader As New StreamReader(dataStream)             Dim responseFromServer As String = reader.ReadToEnd()             Return responseFromServer             reader.Close()             dataStream.Close()             response.Close()         Catch ex As Exception             Console.WriteLine(ex.ToString)             Return Nothing         End Try     End Function End Module

NOTE: Server response is not parsed, but it is fully readable.

Slush mining proxy as service in Windows

This is simple tutorial about how to start Slush mining proxy as service on Windows PC.

For reference I've used this on Windows 2003 server, but it should be same on other versions as well. Basic knowledge of Windows and it's components is required.

Things we'll need:

• mining_proxy.exe: Slush mining proxy, download at
  https://mining.bitcoin.cz/mining-proxy-howto
  Save file to optional folder, like for example C:\miningproxy\
• For Win 2003 server there is "Resource Kit Tools" package available at
  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17657
  
  From that package we'll need following 2 following programs:
  Srvany.exe: Applications as Services Utility
  Instsrv.exe: Service Installer

After we have installed the Resource Kit, the 2 files (srvany.exe & instsrv.exe) can be found at: C:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools\ 
I suggest you copy these 2 files to C:\Windows\system32\ for easier typing on the command shell later on.

1. Start command shell (cmd.exe) and browse to C:\Windows\system32\

2. Install the "custom" service by typing following command:

    instsrv ANYNAME C:\Windows\system32\srvany.exe    

Note that you must specify full path to the srvany.exe, even that we are in same folder. You can  (and should) of course replace ANYNAME with your own. At this point we only create the custom service and only specifying its name. I used Proxyservice as name in this example. 

Screenshot above shows whole procedure.
Note that the first try without full path gives error, so we try again with full path and get the right response.

3. Open Registry Editor by typing regedit on the "Run..." box under the Start-menu.
- I'll call the registry keys as "folder" in the following, even they are not really folders, but the icon shows them as ones.

4. Browse to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Proxyservice (The last "folder" is our desided name for the service.)

Now we need to create few things in the "folder" before we can finally start our new service:
- a key called Parameters and
- two string values called Application and AppParameters

5. Right-click the "folder" Proxyservice and choose New -> Key. A new "folder" appears. Rename this New key #1 to Parameters

6. Right-click the "folder" Proxyservice again and choose this time New -> String Value.
Repeat that once more. Now there should be New Value #1 and New Value #2 inside the Parameters key. Rename these to Application and AppParameters

7. The Application value points to the application we want to start as service, in our case it is the mining_proxy.exe. Edit the value to C:\miningproxy\mining_proxy.exe

8. The AppParameters are the same command line parameters that you can use when starting mining proxy from batch-file (.bat). If you're mining at Slush's pool, you can leave this empty, as the mining_proxy connects to Slush as default.
In this example I used ghash.io pool, so we edit the value to -o uk1.ghash.io -q

Now that everything has been set, the key and its strings should look like following:

9. Go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services and you should find the service there with name Proxyservice. If everything is correct, try start the service and it should run finally! 

You can see it running on Task Manager with name mining_proxy.exe
(Just remember check the box "show processes from all users" to see it.)

P.S. For those who can't bother to edit Registry by own, here is .reg file for that:
Copy it to emtpy textfile and name it whatever.reg 
Note that there must be an empty line at the bottom of the file and yet again, replace Proxyservice with the name you desided earlier, if you changed it.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Proxyservice\Parameters]
"Application"="C:\\miningproxy\\mining_proxy.exe"
"AppParameters"="-o uk1.ghash.io -q"