It has loads of benefits over using the dollar, but a lot of those benefits are lost the second you're having it exchanged.
For instance, if I wanted to use bitcoin for contracting, my clients would have to convert their dollars into bitcoins, then I'd accept the bitcoins smoothly and easily, and then I'd have to exchange them (sell them) back for dollars to buy groceries and pay for the bus. Whereas right now, I get an Interac e-transfer and in less than 30 seconds I have money I can go to the store with, and it cost the sender only a dollar in fees. Sure, it's taxable, but the second I convert it from bit coins it's trackable anyway.
I definitely think this is a model we're going to see a lot more of in the future, but Bitcoin with it's thousand dollar and rising valuation and constant fluctuations is very difficult to get behind and actively use. And with the number of people, just of the people I know, who bought in hoping to cash out, there might be quite the tumble on the way. Who knows though, it will be interesting to watch, that's for sure.
Simple: as a merchant, I really like Bitcoin because it reduces fraud to absolutely zero for me (transactions are irreversible)!
By this logic you should put all your available cash into bitcoins right now. Are you? If not, why not?
It makes rational sense for merchants to accept BitCoin and to keep some holdings in BitCoin because the price is increasing at such a rapid pace. Why wouldn't you want to sell something for x BTC today when that amount could be worth twice as much tomorrow? For the same reason it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to spend a BitCoin. Eventually the currency will level out when the incentive to spend equalizes with the incentive to receive. This might not happen for a while as long as speculation remains the predominant driving force.