WASHINGTON — Bitcoin lacks the anonymity that many users have come to expect and desire, especially for a currency advertised as “cash for the Internet.”

All transactions made using the online currency is logged in a public ledger to ensure their validity.

“It’s inherent in the system to have it be transparent,” said Jim Harper, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute and a member of the board of directors at the Bitcoin Foundation. “You could have greater privacy if it was a system that one party controlled, but that would have costs relying on that party to get it right.”

Bitcoin is a digital currency that has no central authority and can be used, in many ways, like cash. Many businesses, from restaurants to WordPress, have begun to accept bitcoin as payment. To get started, it only takes a few minutes to go online to set up a Bitcoin wallet.

“It is fast and free,” said David Barrett, the CEO of Expensify, a company that supports Bitcoin use for international transactions. “It’s secure. And I would say it works everywhere in the world. And it is a very powerful technology for moving money around the world.”

Bitcoin offers an “acceptable level of privacy,” according to Bitcoin.org, which is managed by its developers. And for many Bitcoin users, any potential loss of privacy is an acceptable trade-off to circumvent traditional financial institutions.

“The idea of having this flexible payment system where you can pay someone on the other side of the world without having to turn to Western Union or something, that is quite an appealing concept,” said Sarah Meiklejohn, a lecturer at University College London who has done research on the currency.

Because this cybercurrency is not tied to any country or bank, it can be a relatively stable option for those in developing countries, where the local currency is often unreliable.

But, because of Bitcoin’s transparency, it is relatively easy to track a user’s entire transaction history. The public ledger shows the location of the Bitcoin user who is making a transaction as well as the history of the Bitcoin they are spending.

The public ledger shows a Bitcoin’s transaction history and the user’s location.

“It is kind of anonymous, but the second that you do any transaction with Bitcoin, every transaction is there,” said Barrett. “Once you pay me a bitcoin, basically I can look at the log and see every transaction you’ve made.”

Bitcoin.org claims no responsibility for any “losses, damages or claims,” for invasions of privacy or thefts, according to its terms and conditions. It suggests encrypting Bitcoin wallets and using secure connections to avoid thefts.

There are ways to improve the anonymity of the currency, but they require a concerted and technology-intensive effort that many do not even know is an option.

“There’s a thing called mixing, which is a process where you commingle your bitcoins with the bitcoins of others and the output of those transactions is harder to trace back to individuals,” said Harper, the Cato fellow. “It might make it a probabilistic calculation rather than drawing a direct line.”

This process is the equivalent to moving funds through banks in countries like the Cayman Islands and Panama which have strict bank-secrecy laws.

Today, some experts are cautious in accepting Bitcoin as a widespread currency. However, many see the Bitcoin concept as one that will remain.

“It’s actually a good alternative to a currency if there is inflation,” Barrett said. “In Venezuela and Africa, it is getting larger adoption. Russia also has a big growth in bitcoin. It’s a safer and less volatile way to keep your currency. Over time, Bitcoin will, in certain parts of the world, become a daily occurrence.”

Bitcoin and its supposed anonymity gained prominence in its role with the Silk Road, an online black marketplace known for selling illicit drugs and weapons. Buyers and sellers were able to connect virtually and use the cybercurrency to conduct anonymous transactions.

“This perception of anonymity might be driving groups towards Bitcoin, but then the transparency is giving law enforcement or anyone interested in these illicit transactions this beautiful view of all of these types of illicit transactions,” said Meiklejohn, the Bitcoin researcher. “Instead of going to somewhere like Western Union and wiring cash over to the Islamic State or whatever, if you’re doing it with Bitcoin then you are creating this paper trail that is never going to go away, literally ever.”

What may scare off more potential Bitcoin users, however, is not its lack of anonymity, it’s the volatility of the currency. In the last 12 months, the value of the currency has fallen by nearly half.

“Maybe I’m just cynical, but it’s hard to see why Bitcoin, as it is now, would achieve widespread adoption, which ultimately is what you would need to have any kind of stable currency,” Meiklejohn said. “So, as long as Bitcoin is this niche market, it is going to remain pretty volatile.”

He noted that it’s becoming more difficult to urge other countries to mobilize behind the United States because other powers no longer want to emulate it.

“They say, “Really? You can’t make a decision,’” Cohen said Wednesday morning. “’You want us to be like you? You can’t make a decision. You’re engaged in a dysfunctional system that’s filled with sclerotic Engelisms. What is going on with the United States where your Congress can’t even arrive at a budget?’”

The government’s inability to make decisions both domestically and internationally has created an aura of doubt in the minds of other countries – not just in the United States, but in democracy in general, according to Cohen.

“There’s a real issue whether democracies can govern today,” he said. “Given the role of social media, given the role of fracturing interest groups into multiple pieces, can any country in a democracy make decisions for the good of the whole?”

Cohen touched on a range of issues, focusing on the future of defense, during his discussion presented by the Center for American Progress.

On the Middle East and ISIS

Just two days after ISIS released another propaganda video, Cohen said the United States is in the midst of an information war with the militant Islamic organization.

“We’ve got to really up our game in terms of putting out information and contesting that, as well as trying to contain the spread of the violence,” he said. “But, it’s going to be an information war and a propaganda war, and we’re losing in that regard.”

The United States has chosen some of its Middle East battles poorly, according to Katherine Blakeley defense policy analyst for the Center for American Progress.

“We have a failed state in Libya following international action, we have a failed state in Syria following international inaction,” Blakeley said. “We have an air campaign that’s still ongoing in both Iraq and Syria related to ISIS, as well as real déjà vu efforts to strengthen the Iraqi government.”

On Russia

Focusing on Russia’s continued violence in Ukraine, Cohen emphasized the need to arm Ukrainians, despite acknowledging that doing so would not be able to stop the Russian attack.

“I would [arm Ukraine],” he said. “They’re fighting tanks with rifles. That’s not necessarily a fair fight.”

He stated that the continued Russian disregard for guidelines set out by the rest of Europe calls for more and harsher sanctions.

“There is an inadequate level of participation by our European friends,” Cohen said. “That has been most evident during the Libyan mission.”

Despite all of the challenges abroad, the United States, first and foremost, must be able to make decisions at home.

“If we intend to remain a role model for the rest of the world, we need to get our own house in order,” Cohen said.

If the current political gridlock does not change, it will become increasingly difficult to take meaningful steps forward both with domestic and foreign policy.

“We have to have a global vision,” Cohen said. “That doesn’t me we have to be putting our military all over the world and that’s the only solution, it means we have to have active diplomacy, active economic investment and a very strong, capable military to back that up.”