user97242: I am fairly new to bitcoin and was attempting to setup a local test network in my machine. I am using the regtest network to create the local network. Is there a way in which I can initialize the nodes (using a genesis block or something) to hold bitcoins (without mining)?
I was going through the developer docs but I could not figure it out. Pardon me if it is a simple solution as I am fairly new to bitcoin.
Something like an initialfreecoins=10000000 in the elements/lightning network.

user63817: No, there does not such thing as initialfreecoins=10000000. However mining on regtest is not resource hungry and nearly instant. It's the only way to get coins.
To get coins on regtest you first need a address to mine those coins to. An address can be created with
 bitcoin-cli -regtest getnewaddress.
To mine and payout to this address use with <address> being the output of the first step and <nblock> the number of blocks you want to mine. A good number would be for example 101 to get 50 coins (because coins need 100 confirmations to be spendable).
bitcoin-cli -regtest generatetoaddress <nblocks> <address>
You can repeat generatetoaddress or set a higher value for <nblock> to get more coins.

97242: <p>I am fairly new to bitcoin and was attempting to setup a local test network in my machine. I am using the regtest network to create the local network. Is there a way in which I can initialize the nodes (using a genesis block or something) to hold bitcoins (without mining)?
I was going through the developer docs but I could not figure it out. Pardon me if it is a simple solution as I am fairly new to bitcoin.
Something like an <code>initialfreecoins=10000000</code> in the elements/lightning network.</p>
 63817: <p>No, there does not such thing as <code>initialfreecoins=10000000</code>. However mining on regtest is <strong>not</strong> resource hungry and nearly instant. It's the only way to get coins.</p>

<p>To get coins on regtest you first need a address to <em>mine</em> those coins to. An address can be created with
 <code>bitcoin-cli -regtest getnewaddress</code>.</p>

<p>To <em>mine</em> and payout to this address use with <code>&lt;address&gt;</code> being the output of the first step and <code>&lt;nblock&gt;</code> the number of blocks you want to mine. A good number would be for example 101 to get 50 coins (because coins need 100 confirmations to be spendable).</p>

<p><code>bitcoin-cli -regtest generatetoaddress &lt;nblocks&gt; &lt;address&gt;</code></p>

<p>You can repeat <code>generatetoaddress</code> or set a higher value for <code>&lt;nblock&gt;</code> to get more coins.</p>
