You can create a Bitshares Wallet and use the decentralized Bitshares exchange.  It is easy to send your Steem over there (not Steem Dollars though -- convert those in the internal Steem market first) 
and then you can sell your Steem for Bitcoin.

Bitshares will never collect your personal information, as it is decentralized and out of any government's control.

I love how people will create something so stupid as crytokittes but not a safe, easy, and RELIABLE way to exchange altcoins

I had no idea this was going on.  Thanks for the information. I see a comment about bitshares, which was created by @dan, steemit' s creator, I am curious to hear if that works out for you.  Also how do you fly without an ID? Or do you just refuse to use it in connection to your finances.

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waiting 2 days and counting to transfer steem & sbd from poloniex to steemit.. I think dealing with the neighborhood loan-shark is probably better than Poloniex.

Having often been in personal contact with @blocktrades, and always receiving great, personalized service,  I gotta lean the other way here and say there is more to the story. I doubt @blocktrades is blowing smoke. The fees are high, though.

me too I refuse to verify on Bittrex. They closed my withdrawals without any warning, from one day to the next. I can't aceppt that. I'll keep insisting they reinstate the 0.025 BTC limit for at least 7 days, as they should have given me some notice before enacting such a change.

why do you have to send using BTC?  Without even mentioning fees.. it is sooo SLOW. 

If you send using LTC (litecoin) the fees are minuscule to what blocktrades has to charge for BTC. I send my STEEM to LTC and then to my exchange with very little fee. 

While you  might think that blocktrades is BSing about the fees I've seen others complaining about the high fees elsewhere so I have no doubt he's not BSing and I have seen him suggest using LTC.

Thank you for sharing your experience.  It's scary and it is by far not the only tale of frustration and aggravation we have heard.  In the meantime Bitcoin is ihitting upwards of 16,000 today, silver down to 15.80 and steem seems to be holding at 2.00.  The volatility is far too much of a firestorm for me.  I have what I have and I am just watching, call it numbness.  Even if some would call it stupidity, it feels more like preservation of my nervous system.  Love your sharing and am rooting for you all the way to experience right and honest transactions.

I think Bitshares (decentralized exchange) would be the way to go.  I still haven't used it yet and not sure of the basic procedures (strange that I have trouble finding videos for the simple stuff - only the advanced stuff such as futures, shorting, etc).

I'm sure you're aware that authority is freaking out over the issue.  Greshams law will begin to set in and drain equity from all national fiat.  Then you won't want your dollars / bolivars / pesos, etc anyway.  Eventually Steem and other crypto will be the standard with no need for conversion to national fiat.  (forwarded to the relevant comments)

https://youtu.be/i_wOEL6dprg?t=14m47s