
Visualizing Realtime Bitcoin Transactions in ReactVR - onggunhao
https://bitcoin-vr.github.io/
======
jimrandomh
Note that the transaction sizes, in most cases, do not represent amounts of
money moving between parties. The reason for this is because of how Bitcoin
transactions are structured. Suppose you have 5.0BTC at an address, and you
want to send 0.1BTC to someone else. The transaction that gets recorded to the
blockchain has an input of 5.0BTC, an output of 0.1BTC going to the recipient,
and an output of 4.9BTC going to a "change address" which is also yours. But
if you don't know anything about the addresses then there's no way to tell, by
looking at the blockchain, which address is the recipient and which is the
change.

(Also, the very biggest transactions represent exchanges and other deposit-
holding institutions moving coins from new deposits to cold storage and from
cold storage to their hot wallets to service withdrawals.)

~~~
g09980
Did not know this. Is there a technical reason it works like this? In
Ethereum, for example, if you're sending 0.1 ETH, you will just send that
amount (no change address).

~~~
jimrandomh
It gives better anonymity that way. If unspent change went back to the same
address, people would be more inclined to reuse the same address over time,
which makes it easier for someone looking at the blockchain to identify who's
paying who.

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oscilloscope
Another classic, BitListen:
[http://www.bitlisten.com/](http://www.bitlisten.com/)

~~~
almostdigital
And [https://realtimebitcoin.info](https://realtimebitcoin.info)

~~~
SuddsMcDuff
My personal favourite: [http://btc4me.com/bitcoin/bitcoin-
traffic/](http://btc4me.com/bitcoin/bitcoin-traffic/)

~~~
toss1
My favorite:

[http://fiatleak.com/](http://fiatleak.com/)

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germainelol
Am I the only one that just sat there seeing BTC transactions of $1m+ and
thinking "Damn, who's that guy?"

~~~
opportune
I noticed that and I have absolutely no idea how there are so many huge
transactions. The peak of the drugs-from-the-internet era looked like child's
play compared to this. The only rational explanations I can think of are
either money laundering, institutional investors, or very wealthy people
buying bitcoin as an insurance strategy.

I do feel bad for the people who are buying into the "digital gold" narrative
at this point in time. I hope none of these big buyers are just regular joe's
with sub-7-figure net worths who are just being irresponsible with their money
due to the "hype"

~~~
Cthulhu_
The BTC market cap is nearly worth $300 billion, naturally there will be
"large" transactions like that in something that big. Just Coinbase moving
something to / from their cold storage is probably worth tens of millions in
USD. And of course there's a lot of rich people and businesses that make
larger transactions.

A million doesn't feel like that much money anymore for billionaires. That's
like spending $1 if you've got $100 in your wallet.

~~~
ejolto
> That's like spending $1 if you've got $100 in your wallet.

You are off by an order of magnitude.

~~~
opportune
Yep it's $1 to $1000

Furthermore I highly doubt that it's mostly billionaires with >$1m USD
holdings of BTC. There simply aren't enough to sustain this level of
transactions.

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onggunhao
Hi! Robin and I built this as a side project to learn ReactVR and Redux.
Bitcoin-VR uses pure client-side javascript to visualize Bitcoin transactions
in Virtual Reality.

Please wait for some time for it to download as the assets are quite large!

The code is open source, and free for anyone to fork. We're also really new to
web development, so we welcome all criticism and avenues where we can improve!

~~~
danboarder
Nice! Is it easy in ReactVR to add a button for Google Cardboard 3D viewing on
smartphones? I've played with Mozilla A-Frame and it provides this, curious if
ReactVR does as well.

~~~
FLGMwt
Yup! It shows up by default, IIRC.

It's a layer on top of WebVR, similar to A-Frame.

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gt_
I like the metaphor of BTC investments as just floating the quantity into the
atmosphere via hot air balloon.

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masonicb00m
This visualization is broken. I can’t see the moon.

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_red
Its says balloons<1BTC and blimps>1BTC....however that appears wrong, looks
like it should be 100BTC as conditional.

~~~
onggunhao
Oops!! Fixed it! Thanks for pointing it out to us

[https://github.com/bitcoin-vr/bitcoin-vr/pull/84](https://github.com/bitcoin-
vr/bitcoin-vr/pull/84)

PS: We set the param of 1 BTC when we built the first version a few weeks ago.
Then came the massive surge in transactions and prices... we had to change the
info panels to accomodate a lot more digits (esp for the USD price). Kinda
crazy how the parameters changed within such a short period of time

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sschueller
Nice, but I think fish would be more appropriate :) (Yes, I know a whale is
not a fish)

~~~
Diggsey
Actually, you can call whales fish (it's not like there's a common ancestor of
all fish of which whales aren't a descendent) they just also happen to be
mammals.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Such_Thing_as_a_Fish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Such_Thing_as_a_Fish)

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nicoleczhu
Would be interesting to see some more data viz on the blimps. Are these
individuals or funds - very curious

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no-such-address
Visualizing: You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think
it means. VIS guy

~~~
dang
Please don't post unsubstantive dismissals to HN. If you know more, please
teach us by adding relevant information. If you don't want to do that, that's
fine, but then it's better not to post.

Either way, please drop the swipes, and for bonus points we can leave out the
internet clichés as well.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

------
sAbakumoff
>>Designed for Chrome or Safari.

I am pretty adamant that these days you gotta design for Edge as well.

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megaman22
Lol, why? Nobody uses Edge unless that's the only thing allowed.

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baud147258
I am reading this page on edge. I have also chrome on this computer and I have
admin right so I could install Firefox too.

~~~
overcast
Firefox doesn't require admin rights to install fyi. It will install to your
user environment, and not the system just fine.

