Only crypto-anarchists and privacy activists give a shit about smart mining and decentralization. None of that appeals to a wider audience, who just want an easy way to spend their money (not hosting a full node). Do you really think regular people are concerned with those features?
20 years ago, only "crypto-anarchists and privacy activists" actually gave a shit about securing personal data with encryption.
Then some celeb i-pads got hacked, Snowden won an Oscar, and the .gov demanded Apple destroy their own products' utility.
Anyway, here is some light reading on the history of digital cash in science fiction:
https://web.archive.org/web/20150510234837/http://garzikrants.blogspot.com/2013/06/shadowrun-and-bitcoins-roots.html
Note the credsticks are *not* being used to buy coffee....
For XMR bookworms out there, you may want to read Cryptonomicon (by Neal Stephenson), an excellent 800-page-turner covering digital currencies, WW2 gold, *nix, true randomness, cryptology, and other fascinating topics.
I myself have read this book at least 8 times.
http://www.amazon.com/Cryptonomicon-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0060512806
I'm fairly sure some of you have already read this book.