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.
I agree. Accomplished and gifted I think are more accurate than genius. Satoshi's invention was genius. Afaics Dan hasn't come close yet. Afaics, nothing Dan has produced is actually viable, although we have to acknowledge that Steem(it) opens a lot of people's eyes and it represents an important experiment to learn from (if not somehow morphing to widespread viability).
I can't say with any certainty that there is a huge gap between massive accomplishment and widespread viability, but I tend to think so. But I also recognize that Dan (and his lead programmer!) are accomplished and talented enough. So they may have or will unlock viability at some point. They have an established base of technology to work from, which took a couple of years to develop.
Actually it is quite exciting. Going to be interesting to see how this all plays out, including what others are working on. I wish I was Dan's age and had his health at this juncture. What an exciting time to have complete facilities and abilities. It brings back fond memories of my late 20s and early 30s (and an intense desire to get back there!), in which I was churning out production at a similar clip.