Getting notified when Bitcoin DCA makes a purchase or does a withdrawal

If you want to get notifications from Bitcoin DCA when purchases and withdrawals are made you can configure the application to do so.

Protocol Notifications
Email Buy, Withdraw
Telegram Buy, Withdraw, New Bitcoin DCA versions

Sending email from Bitcoin DCA

Sending an email is difficult; usually, internet providers limit home connections in connecting outside to prevent infected computers from sending out spam. For this reason, Bitcoin DCA provides multiple providers you can choose from for sending your email through various APIs.

Generally, each provider will ask you to sign up and verify at least your email address. Some provide more control and allow you to verify an entire domain. Low volumes of email are usually free.

Bitcoin DCA supports these email providers. Sending through HTTP is preferred because it has the least risk of getting blocked. However, if you prefer SMTP you can choose that as well.

The configuration parameter NOTIFICATION_EMAIL_DSN accepts input on how to send the email by providing a DSN.

Provider DSN for sending through SMTP DSN for sending through HTTP
Amazon SES ses+smtp://USERNAME:PASSWORD@default ses+https://ACCESS_KEY:SECRET_KEY@default
Google Gmail gmail+smtp://USERNAME:PASSWORD@default  
Mailchimp Mandrill mandrill+smtp://USERNAME:PASSWORD@default mandrill+https://KEY@default
Mailgun mailgun+smtp://USERNAME:PASSWORD@default mailgun+https://KEY:DOMAIN@default
Mailjet mailjet+smtp://ACCESS_KEY:SECRET_KEY@default  
Postmark postmark+smtp://ID@default  
Sendgrid sendgrid+smtp://KEY@default sendgrid+api://KEY@default
Sendinblue sendinblue+smtp://USERNAME:PASSWORD@default  
Your own SMTP server smtp://USERNAME:PASSWORD@HOSTNAME:PORT  

Note

The easiest service to use is probably Gmail as most people already own a gmail address. If you use 2FA you need to create an app password first.

Under the hood, Bitcoin DCA uses the Symfony Mailer. You can consult their documentation for more advanced topics such as alternative ports, high availability and load balancing.

For example, when using Gmail your configuration would look like this:

Example for sending email from Gmail
NOTIFICATION_EMAIL_ENABLED=1
NOTIFICATION_EMAIL_TO=satsstacker@gmail.com
NOTIFICATION_EMAIL_DSN=gmail+smtp://USERNAME:PASSWORD@default

Using Telegram with Bitcoin DCA

If you want to get notifications on Telegram from Bitcoin DCA you can follow these instructions:

  1. Open a new chat with Botfather;
  2. Tell it you want to create a new bot with /newbot;
  3. Pick a name. Be creative;
  4. Pick a username for your new bot, it should end in bot and should be unique across the Telegram network. For example: BobsTelegramDCABot;
  5. Note the secret token you just received. It looks like 12345:ABCDetc;
  6. Talk to your new bot by clicking the t.me/BobsTelegramDCABot link you received. This will tell Telegram the bot is allowed to talk to you;
  7. Open a new chat with GetMyID bot. This bot will tell you the ID of your Telegram account;
  8. Note the ID you received.

Make sure you have talked to your new bot. It won’t talk back, but this will let Telegram know it’s allowed to send messages to you. Now, configure Bitcoin DCA with this information:

Example for connecting Bitcoin DCA to Telegram
NOTIFICATION_TELEGRAM_ENABLED=1
NOTIFICATION_TELEGRAM_DSN=telegram://BOTFATHERSECRET@default?channel=YOURTELEGRAMACCOUNTID
# example: NOTIFICATION_TELEGRAM_DSN=telegram://12345:ABCDetc@default?channel=123456