Shops near borders often take the neighboring country's currency because it is convenient for travelers. If bitcoin was accepted more places, then those same travelers wouldn't have to worry about currency conversion. Sounds useful to me.

Okay, so continue that thought to why would that business do that — is it faster, cheaper, etc.? How many transactions are there where the cost of currency conversion is greater than the cost of the Bitcoin transaction fees and conversion into the currency the receiver needs to make most purchases?

>extra fees, delays, lack of fraud protection

It sounds like you are talking about credit cards and not bitcoin.

Compared to credit cards, bitcoin has extremely low fees and fast payments. The fraud protection for merchants is far superior compared to any credit card payment solution.

It seems pretty obvious that most people spreading this kind of bullshit have never actually tried to use bitcoin, and have instead built their knowledge based on forum posts by other uninformed people.

What's the obsession with needing a legal reason? Why do people reject the illegal but interesting uses? Doesn't the fact that bitcoin has managed to subvert drug prohibition for many people make clear that it is capable of interesting things?

Legality matters for two reasons: one is simply that the huge predictions about market valuations and transformative social effects require more volume than people buying drugs online.

The other reason it matters is that if something is primarily used for illegal activities that'll really hold back the whole system: most businesses aren't going to offer a payment option which makes them look shady, people are going to hesitate to use have the software installed, running an exchange will be even riskier, etc.

For Bitcoin in particular, there's also the practical risk that doing something illegal in a public ledger with non-repudiation guarantees is not generally a good call.