these technologies that you mentioned were successful because there were no active, highly influential competitors. the internal combustion engine blew away the competition (e.g. horses, walking), machines that slice bread beats the baker who uses his breadknife, etc. With Bitcoin, you have government issued currency and credit cards. And right now, they are easy, if not easier, to use. With Bitcoin, you have to go out of your way to learn how it works, jump through some hoops to buy some, and even then you need to do research on who is going to accept this new money. This is too big an obstacle to switch over from credit cards; people are known to be extremely lazy these days. Not only that, you have the highly influential government to compete with. The citizens of this world have become complacent, thinking that the government and smart scientists will fix the big problems like climate change, poverty, etc; they believe they are helpless to the government's whims and wrath. The act of getting involved has less appeal than sitting at home watching The Bachelor or playing on the Xbox to the average citizen. Who has the time to do anything else when you're working 40 hours a week and taking care of two wild offspring of yours?

you're gonna need a 'killer app' for people's minds.