Why would a merchant accept Bitcoin?
Because he can sell the bitcoin for dollars. And in many cases, his alternative would be to accept a credit card payment which costs him around 2%. Converting bitcoins to dollars costs around 0.2% -- one tenth as much. Also, if he accepts a credit card payment, he has to worry about a chargeback (where you claim the payment was unauthorized and the bank reverses the payment). Bitcoin has no chargebacks.