What enables transactions between buyers and sellers
Anonymization services, such as TOR, enable users to hide, meaning that they can browse the internet without revealing their personal identification details. Additionally, specific services allow websites to be anonymously hosted by hiding the servers’ location—a feature known as hidden services. Because of these characteristics, dark markets can sell illegal products in an open fashion, providing a highly anonymous comfort to their users. While anonymization services have largely been recognized for illegal, often criminal reasons, their original purpose was different. There are many permissible and legal purposes for which citizens may wish to use these hidden services—for example, news leaks, whistleblowing, anonymous browsing, and many others.
In the last few years, there has been a dramatic expansion in the sale of various illegal substances on the Dark Web drug markets, with online sales estimated to...