Unlike the open Internet, whose pages can be found via search engines such as Google, the Darknet or Deep Web is hidden from view. Here a network is created from and between all participants, classical servers do not exist.
What is the darknet?
In the traditional, “open” Internet, the user surfs to a server where all content is stored. With the darknet, the connection setup is based on multiple peer-to-peer connections, so a network is created from all participants, without a central server.
This makes the darknet much more anonymous overall, and also reduces the actual attack surface, since without a server there is no central station where all the content is located. The darknet is also not a single unified network; instead, various such networks exist, each dedicated to different content.
Meanwhile, the origin of the term can be traced back to the 1970s. The term “darknet” was used to describe networks that were completely isolated from the ARPANET of the time and had no connection to other networks. In the meantime, the darknet refers to all those networks that are isolated from the public Internet. They each fulfill different tasks, consist of different participants, and can sometimes dissolve completely if there are no longer enough participants for the peer-to-peer overlay network.
Contents of the Darknet
In general, anything that at least one user offers can exist on the darknet. Since the connection between the participants is established and not monitored, the darknet is de facto a lawless space, simply because the participants in it remain legally virtually inaccessible or their actual identity is very difficult to establish.
For this reason, the darknet is now repeatedly associated with criminal activities, including the trade-in of drugs and weapons, which flourishes on the darknet. Other illegal trade, including human trafficking and prostitution, also takes place on the darknet, provided that there is at least one user who offers this content. Furthermore, the darknet is still classically a reloading point for digital content, above all films or music. Separate networks are often available for the exchange of these.
Darknet markets
As a synonym for the “darknet”, the public therefore often refers to the “darknet market”. More precisely, the term refers to the various black markets located on the darknet. On these, users can offer their own goods and services, similar to a classic online store or the auction house eBay. Due to the concealment on the darknet, however, the offer usually includes the illegal products or services mentioned above.
Payment on the darknet black markets is made with anonymous currencies, especially Bitcoins are popular. To ensure anonymity between both parties, access to the markets also takes place via Tor browsers and the associated Tor network. Hidden services play a major role here in order to disclose content only to a certain group of people.
One of the best-known representatives of darknet black markets was the “Silk Road” portal. Current, active markets are called, for example, “Valhalla”, “AlphaBay”, “Dream Market” or “HANSA Market”. Due to their anonymous nature, many of these markets have a trustee system in which the market itself acts as a trustee.
