I think the biggest issue to tackle is the barrier to entry. For many people crypto is a foreign technology. Explain to them how Bitcoin works and maybe they understand the premise. But not the technology. I don't understand the technology, or at least I couldn't explain it well to someone. But I am enough of a risk taker and interested enough to learn the keys to BTC to at least own some.
I was able to buy Bitcoin thru coinbase. Now you can get it at BTMs. But you can't buy steem that way. You can't even have someone send you steem to a BTC wallet. You need a different wallet. So how do I get steem? Well now I have to take another risk and send my BTC to a site to convert my BTC to Steem for me. Or is it Steem Power? Or SBD? WHAT? This makes BTC look like child's play to a novice. Are Steemit accounts even gifted to unique phone numbers anymore? It is difficult to grow a userbase with these types of obstacles. But I made it here somehow as someone who just learned about steem a few weeks ago. Maybe more diversity in app growth and development of SMTs can help with some of it but giving everyday people a chance to earn money by voting, commenting, replying and blogging is a better way to increase value if we can lower/remove the barrier to entry.