Cardano has huge potential but in my own view it still have a very long way to go. Let me first identify some of the things that make it unique before I identify some of the needed adjustment.
The following make Cardano unique.
It has a very good roadmap that make people interested it. It make it possible for stakeholders to delegate their stake. Client support,cardano debit card, incentive and fees to encourage users to run a full node, IELE testnet launch. It separate accouting and computation into different layers,peer reviewed research building a cryptocurrency that can work on mobile devices and provide a reasonable and secure user experience. It also offers a platform for developers to create dapps and deploy smart contracts.
In my own view cardano still far from the only dapp/smart contract platform out there. Ethereum,NEO, NEM,EOS and a host of other projects these will provide stiff competition and could affect leaves of adoption. Untill the Goguen phase of the roadmap has been successfully completed, their is high level of uncertainty surrending the project.