Populus isn't just a framework designed to easily develop and test a smart contract. It has a tool to deploy a smart contract to a blockchain, including a private chain.
A private chain is basically your private Ethereum blockchain, similar to Ganache, except that you build it yourself. It's like blockchain in the Rinkeby network, but you're the sole miner. You can create a private blockchain manually using geth software; populus just makes it easier for you.
The command to create a new private chain is as follows:
(populus-venv) $ populus chain new localblock
This command will create some files in your project directory. All generated files are located inside the chains directory. One of the files generated is chains/localblock/genesis.json. The purpose of the genesis file is to dictate the initial configuration of the Ethereum...