Using WebSockets to Convert BTC to USD and Reais (BRL)

If you need real-time BTC conversion (USD and BRL), polling an API every few seconds is usually not enough. A better approach is streaming quotes with WebSockets and calculating conversions as events arrive. Why WebSockets for BTC conversion? With WebSockets, your app keeps one open connection and receives new prices instantly. Benefits: Lower latency than polling Fewer HTTP requests Better user experience for real-time values Trade-offs: You must handle reconnects Need heartbeat/health checks Must validate and normalize incoming messages Real-time conversion model For BTC conversion, a common model is: Stream BTC/USD Stream USD/BRL Calculate BTC/BRL = BTC/USD × USD/BRL This avoids waiting for a separate BTC/BRL endpoint and keeps conversion logic transparent What is a “tick”? A tick is one market update event. Example: BTCUSD changed to 64210.50 at timestamp t . In this article, each tick has: pair : market identifier ( BTCUSD , USDBRL ) price : latest value for that pair ts : event timestamp Why this matters: conversion state should always be derived from the latest ticks . Minimal WebSocket client (TypeScript) This client only transports responsibilities: Connect Receive messages Parse and normalize into a consistent shape Notify listeners Reconnect on disconnect type MarketTick = { pair : string ; // e.g. "BTCUSD" or "USDBRL" price : number ; ts : number ; }; class WsFeedClient { private ws ?: WebSocket ; private listeners : Array < ( tick : MarketTick ) => void > = []; constructor ( private readonly url : string ) {} connect () { this . ws = new WebSocket ( this . url ); this . ws . onopen = () => console . log ( " [ws] connected " ); this . ws . onmessage = ( event ) => { try { const data = JSON . parse ( String ( event . data )); // Normalize external payload into internal contract const tick : MarketTick = { pair : String ( data . pair ), price : Number ( data . price ), ts : Number ( data . ts ), }; // Basic guard if ( ! tick . pair || Number . isNaN ( tick