Merchants accepting STEEM will be a huge benefit to STEEM community but will also benefit the merchants. The benefit to merchants is STEEM payments are much more like cash payments than credit card payments. These days a retail or service business who don't take credit card payments cannot survive. Credit card companies take advantage of this by passing onto the merchant risk of payment dispute, credit card fees, and cash-back rewards. This takes a huge cut into merchant profit when profit margins are slim to begin with. In addition, STEEM payments only take 3 seconds and are free. Credit card payments often come with interest and take a full billing cycle (typically monthly) for the merchant to get paid. I feel merchants will have an advantage by taking STEEM payments over credit card.