"...people will adapt in ways we can't yet foresee." That is how I feel as well. It's an extremely hopeful outlook.
As to societal collapse, whatever form that may take, have you read much about the Universal Basic Income idea? It's something I really can't wrap my head around yet, as it involves government, but the idea sounds... Intriguing? I guess that's the word I'm looking for.
The basic idea is that, as automation theoretically drives folks to perpetual joblessness (a somewhat preposterous notion to me), the government will provide a basic income to every citizen (an even more preposterous notion). I'm an anarchist through-and-through, so it's hard for me to even fathom that level of market interference, but I can't help but wonder about a free market movement with a similar end.
I don't think a UBI is practical from government, but there may be ways to leverage crypto-currency to the same effect. For a UBI to work would require a hyper-inflationary model to be sustained indefinately, which no conventional economy was designed to do. But with crypto, we can invent new economic models that were not possible before.
Consider this: Everyone gets 10 coins of some new crypto... we'll call them "UBICoins".
The UBICoin can be used for purchases, but depreciates at a fixed rate daily. If you don't spend it, you lose it. The longer you wait, the less it's worth. That cash-sink can hedge against inflation brought about by minting a billion new coins every week. When you transact business, the coin expiration clock starts over. This would provide a currency for day to day needs. The UBICoin could be exchanged at a fluctuating market rate for another deflationary coin at anytime to preserve it's value for long-term savings. We'll call that SaveCoin. UBICoin to SaveCoin conversions could happen almost instantaneously, but transacting with SaveCoin takes a week of verification, so it's not practical to hold for short-term transactions. They could even be the same coin with an internal flag that toggles it from one type to another.
That's one idea, and probably not the best. But this could never be done with physical currency, and that added functionality could make some form of UBI viable. I still have my reservations though, it would be a whole new economic model with many potential hazards and a rough transition for many people. I think it is possible for the first time in history, but not without it's dangers and most current tests are so flawed, they could never scale up. But it's an interesting thing to think about.
I think you just partially described the Steem blockchain, didn't you?
The trouble then would be to get businesses to accept these tokens that depreciate with time. It would be wise in that model for them to convert to an inconveniently slow token. But I like the idea. Probably the closest thing I've heard to a reasonable solution.