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How to Build a DApp Portfolio Without Spending a Penny
Use testnets and free web services to deploy Ethereum DApps for free
Building a portfolio of decentralized applications (DApps) is the best way to show the world you’re a blockchain developer.
You might think that maintaining a portfolio of public DApps costs a lot of money. Hosting websites and domains costs money, and deploying smart contracts costs Ether.
I’m here to tell you that you can build, deploy, and maintain multiple Ethereum DApps without paying a penny for hosting or a single Wei on the Ethereum main network (mainnet).
Using Testnets
Test networks (testnets) are public blockchain networks that mirror the mainnet production environment.
They allow core developers to test new features like sharding and consensus mechanisms before they’re deployed to the mainnet. They also allow DApp developers to test their applications before deploying their immutable code to the mainnet.
There are several testnets to chose from, each with slightly different characteristics like their consensus mechanism, and node software support.
The Ropsten testnet most closely resembles the Ethereum mainnet. MetaMask Chrome extension…
