user41365: I want to build a pet project which would use bitcoin for sending/receiving and see balance of wallets involved changed.
What are my options for having a local env that would allow me to perform these operations in a way similar to real environment?

user3667: Bitcoin Core and all implementations of Bitcoin should provide developers with a local regtest mode which is local only (no peers) and a mining difficulty of 0. This is the mode most tests are written in because blocks can be mined instantly.
Since you tagged nodejs you might be interested in bcoin:
https://bcoin.io
https://github.com/bcoin-org/bcoin

41365: <p>I want to build a pet project which would use bitcoin for sending/receiving and see balance of wallets involved changed.</p>
<p>What are my options for having a local env that would allow me to perform these operations in a way similar to real environment?</p>
 3667: <p>Bitcoin Core and all implementations of Bitcoin should provide developers with a local <code>regtest</code> mode which is local only (no peers) and a mining difficulty of 0. This is the mode most tests are written in because blocks can be mined instantly.</p>
<p>Since you tagged nodejs you might be interested in bcoin:</p>
<p><a href="https://bcoin.io" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://bcoin.io</a></p>
<p><a href="https://github.com/bcoin-org/bcoin" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://github.com/bcoin-org/bcoin</a></p>
