As a developer Dan is definitely a genius, top 3 with Vitalik and Satoshi.
Disagree. He is smart, as I am smart, but neither of us are geniuses.
Dan appears to me be naive. He is smart though and apparently a talented developer and technology savant. Note there is a lead programmer on Steemit who is not Dan and appears to do much of the actual coding.
Perhaps but only once you actualise your ability on a large blockchain project can you be compared. Dan was also the founder and lead developer on BTS.
https://bitshares.org/ https://bitshares.openledger.info/#/He/it was a pioneer in many areas and I still think even now it's miles ahead of a lot of competitors. Steem was also created and launched fairly quickly where other projects take much longer and cost much more. So I think he is gifted/exceptional in that area.