So it is not surprising that we are all in very demanding times. As regards Europe, it is absolutely crucial to make a distinction between the currency itself and the tensions that we have observed in some countries.
This is the classic chicken-egg problem, a problem that often gets solved by slow growth on both sides of the market. In principle, the government could intervene and force or induce merchants, consumers and financial institutions to adopt the new technology, but in practice, alternatives to stored-value products are cheap and safe enough that such intervention is both economically unwise and politically unlikely.