This is the first episode of the Steemit Education Series and there are more to come. Since Utopian rules require the first blog post of a series to contain clear explanations and expectations about the series, I will fulfill this requirement before moving to the main topic. People have been calling me a great Steemit teacher for many months now. The wise old man 
The Steemit Education Series will take every reader from the very basics of Steemit to the advanced level of understanding. Application of the knowledge shared through this series will enable Steemit users, new or old, to succeed in gaining more rewards, reputation, followers, and appreciation. It is going to be a regular series with two to three posts every week. Stay tuned.
Let's come back to the main topic now.
What is Steemit?
While this post may help a lot of potential new users searching Google about Steemit, reading it is important for most of the current Steemians as well, especially the newbies and the users struggling to get a hang of this amazing website. It is important to know what Steemit is in order to have a greater chance of success with whatever you intend to do here.
Different aspects of Steemit are covered below.
Steemit is a Social Media That Rewards People With Crypto!
A social media website or app needs you to create an account, read content from others, share your content, interact with others through comments, and react to others' content in some way (like, clap, vote etc). Steemit does all this too so it is a social media website. Like all social media, you need to gain some following and get noticed.
But Steemit is not your regular social media. It pays, and that too in cryptocurrency. It is the first social media platform to do so and by far the biggest one.
Steemit is a Decentralized Blogging Platform
Consider Steemit like the WordPress software; the most popular blogging platform on the internet. Or consider it like Medium. The difference is that Steemit is decentralized and it pays. Decentralization means the absence of central control. The entire network is run by the users and the witnesses they choose with their vote. A single person or a board does not take decisions affecting the users. But there are some considerations.
Steemit does not need you to buy a domain name to blog. Your Steemit username is your blog.
It does not need you to buy online storage space from a web hosting company. It is managed as per your stake in the platform.
It has visual, markdown, and HTML editors to create your blog posts. Markdown styling is the most common editing option as the comments are styled only with this option.
Whatever you create (a comment or a post) can receive rewards if readers find your effort worth some upvotes.
Nothing that you post on Steemit can be deleted or lost, as it is permanently stored on the blockchain.
Many renowned authors, like 
Steemit is a dApp Built on Steem Blockchain
As already discussed, Steemit is decentralized. This aspect comes from the fact that Steemit is a decentralized application (dApp) built on top of the Steem blockchain. Steem is the best performing blockchain in the industry right now. There are now a lot of dApps built on top of Steem, like 
Whatever you do on Steemit is, in fact, an interaction with the blockchain. Your rewards and content are also stored on the blockchain. Have you realized how easy mass adoption of blockchain technology becomes with Steemit?
Conclusion
The purpose of this introductory post about Steemit is to build a solid foundation for the upcoming episodes of the Steemit Education Series. As the series progresses, I will cover everything step by step and hopefully create a great resource on Steemit for everyone; especially the new members. Share your feedback in the comments below. I am particularly interested in knowing what you wish to see covered in the series ahead.
Posted on Utopian.io - Rewarding Open Source Contributors