Hello everybody,

this post is the first of a new post-series powered by @smartsteem - called: STEEM BASICS.

STEEM BASICS will be a series of posts that covers all topics about STEEM, STEEMIT, BUSY, UTOPIAN (etc.) and the whole Ecosystem and will help new users on STEEM to understand the plattform better!

This first episode is about STEEM - the blockchain - and what the differences between STEEMIT, BUSY, UTOPIAN and DMANIA are and why they are actually kind of the same thing.

What is STEEM?

STEEM is a blockchain. One of the most used and future-proof ones to be exact. It has currently the most Activity from all available Blockchains - even more than Ethereum and nearly 4x the amount of Bitcoin.

source: blocktivity.info

STEEM has many benefits over other blockchains, but explaining everything would go very much into the technical details and this post is directed more to the basics.For now it has to suffice that STEEM is extremely advanced in contrast to other blockchains.

But .. and this super important and one of the most exciting things comming to STEEM:

STEEM will launch a new Feature called Smart-Media-Tokens in Q1 2018 - which will allow people to create their own Blockchain (Tokens) on the STEEM Blockchain. Similar to Ethereums Erc20 Tokens, which is one of the reasons why Ethereum is so valuable right now - as many of the currently successful CryptoCurrencies are Erc20 Tokens.

You can learn more about SMT's on smt.steem.io. (We will also create a Post about SMT's when the time is right and the release imminent and final)

What is the difference between STEEM and STEEMIT and BUSY and UTOPIAN..?

We understand that once you get started on STEEMIT, BUSY, UTOPIAN or another site based on STEEM - that you will prob. have a hard time understanding what STEEM is and what the difference between STEEM and the site you are reading this post right now on, is.

But it is actually very easy.

STEEM (the blockchain) is the backbone of the whole ecosystem, that handles everything ranging from the creation of posts & comments, the voting and the transfers from one user to another user.

And STEEMIT, BUSY, UTOPIAN & Co. are simply interfaces that display and interact with the blockchain.

Try to imagine how your Browser (Mozilla, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari) is displaying the content of the Internet. You don't need to have Facebook downloaded to your PC or Smartphone - it is simply displayed on your screen.

That means, that it doesn't matter which interface/website you use to interact with STEEM - the posts, comments and everything else is the same - only how it is displayed is different.

Some people prefer the way look of BUSY and some prefer STEEMIT.

But most importantly, through sites like UTOPIAN and DMANIA - not only the look has changed but also the way you interact with the blockchain.

In the case of UTOPIAN - an amazing way to finance open source projects - only posts that are created through UTOPIAN will also be listed there.

So you see - the eco-system is already pretty big but will evolve to become even bigger and in the heart of everything is the STEEM Blockchain.

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STEEM BASICS was brought to you by @smartsteem.

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What does smartsteem offer?

• Bid-Bot through smartsteem - send URL as MEMO to @smartsteem - votes are every 2.4h - both SBD & STEEM accepted - check on bottracker for current status.

• Buy Instant-Upvotes through smartmarket - profit guaranteed - send URL as MEMO to @smartmarket - both SBD & STEEM accepted.

• Sell your Votes with @smartmarket and earn up to 98% of your voting-power as revenue - you can enable it here: https://smartsteem.com/features

• Delegate STEEMPOWER to @smartsteem and earn profit-shares of the bid-bot proportionate to your delegated amount. We pay out 90% of our profits! Go to https://smartsteem.com/sponsors and check out this post: https://steemit.com/steem/@smartsteem/guide-how-to-delegate-to-smartsteem-and-earn-profit-shares

Our amazing Sponsors who receive 90% of our bid-bot profits:

@xeldal - 20.300 SP
@motoengineer - 5.000 SP
@drorion - 3.890 SP
@doinglean - 850 SP
@yanosh01 - 250 SP
@c0ff33a - 100 SP
@ohamdache - 100 SP
@marty-art 100 SP
@felander - 100 SP
@doqstrader - 90 SP
@jpederson96 - 100 SP
@vidafitnessveliz - 50 SP
@detlev - 50 SP
@haxmat - 50 SP
@yogesssh - 50 SP
@plushzilla - 50 SP
@gyrosean - 50 SP
@juanv - 40 SP
@braveheart29 - 20 SP
@chnorris - 18 SP
@danielwong - 15 SP
@fatkat - 10 SP
@reko - 10 SP
@baroen96 - 10 SP
@abuzenk - 10 SP
@here-could-be-your-name

Who is behind smartsteem:

@therealwolf
@artbunny

Join us on discord

If you have any questions, feedback, want to collaborate with us or something else you want to tell us - come and join our discord! :)