How do I start developing on the Hedera network? Do I need a mainnet account to start?

1. DEVELOPMENT ACCOUNT:
1. Go to the Hedera Portal to create an account on testnet and use that for development (it's free and you don't need to buy hbar)
• If/when you need a mainnet account (where transactions cost real hbar), it's best to create that mainnet account through one of the supported wallets here: https://hedera.com/account-creation
  
  
2. EXAMPLES & DOCUMENTATION:
1. We have SDKs for Java, Javascript, Go, and .NET. There are examples in the GitHub repositories for the SDKs:
• Here's code to create a topic, submit messages, and subscribe to that topic (JavaScript)
• Here's code to create a token, KYC, transfer, wipe, and delete that token (JavaScript)
2. Technical documentation is here: https://docs.hedera.com
• The documentation includes details and examples for each set of functionality; for example:
• Here are the details about how to create a token (Hedera Token Service)
• Here are the details about how to create a topic (Hedera Consensus Service)
  
  
3. HELP FROM HEDERA & COMMUNITY:
• Reach out any time to the Discord community of developers and Hedera employees here: https://hedera.com/discord
  
  
4. ADDITIONAL LEARNING RESOURCES:
• Get Started Portal: https://hedera.com/get-started
• Learning Center: https://hedera.com/learning/what-is-hedera-hashgraph
• Whitepapers: https://hedera.com/papers​
• FAQ: https://help.hedera.com