There is no single black market in the world, and has probably never been just one. There are many black markets, or shadow economies, that operate both independently and in cooperation. One such market, which isn’t just one market either, is the black market on Darknet. Darknet is sometimes considered to be one single network, a dark corner of the internet, which isn’t true either. Darknet have many layers and is accessed in many ways.
However, the first black market on Darknet was Silk Road. It was the first modern darknet market that initially focused on selling illegal drugs. Many other illegal things were sold on Silk Road, and the total value of operation was likely to be around $30,000,000…
Silk Road was however brought down by the FBI, showing that it even small detail can lead to discovery – although there is still a very high belief that anyone that enter Darknet is 100% anonymous.
The takedown of Silk Road didn’t stop other from following, despite the fact that the founder of Silk Road was sentenced to life in prison. Markets such as Atlantis, BlackMarket Reloaded, Silk Road 2.0, Sheep Marketplace and many others have broadened the black markets – and some continue to prosper. Not all black markets are known, for obvious reasons.
One of the largest black markets that operate today is AlphaBay, that not only accept Bitcoins but also accept Monero – another crypto currency believed to be even more anonymous than Bitcoin.
Whether the authorities can continue to shut down black markets on the hidden networks remains to be seen, the authorities are falling behind and the real question is what effect black markets that grow this rapid can have on the real economy – not to mention the tax authorities.
Want to know more about Darknet? Read this interesting article from PC Mag.
Would you like to access the Deep Web and Darknet yourself? Read this very intuitive guideline from Cloudwards.