Thank you for this. Truly a good find/read that I was not aware of. My friend Hive account@andraslife just asked me tonight how she can convert her Steem/SBD to EUR. All the other options are quite clunky, and I felt quite bad, because I had dragged her onto Steemit. The best suggestion was Steem/SBD>Bittrext (BTC)> localbitcoins.com. I will be passing this much more simple way on to her.

How does the process work using the virtual card at a debit store or atm? Can you use the virtual card like this? Or does it have to be a physical card to use like so and the virtual card is only for e.g. online shopping?

Thank you, seriously good post. In Australia, I use coinjar and their bitcoin debit card, but it doesn't have this 'top up' with Shapeshift integration, which is really a +1. I am disappointed e-coin is not available for AUD.