Difference between Dark web and Deep web
The Dark Web then is classified as a small portion of the Deep Web that has been intentionally hidden and is inaccessible through standard web browsers. The TOR network is an anonymous network that can only be accessed with a special web browser, called the TOR browser.
Dark web. ... The dark web forms a small part of the deep web, the part of the Web not indexed by web search engines, although sometimes the term deep web is mistakenly used to refer specifically to the dark web.
Due to the anonymity that Tor and such private browsers offer, unfortunately, it is also a popular nesting ground for criminal and illegal activity. ... While it is legal to access the deep web with a dedicated or anonymous browser, many websites on the deep web are not legal to visit.
Sometimes you will hear the term Deep Web used interchangeably with "Dark Web," but they aren't really the same thing. The Dark Web actually refers to a set of accessible, albeit anonymously hosted, websites that exist within the Deep Web.
Because these websites are not indexed by normal search engines, you can access them only with special software that disguises your IP address.
The most common software used to access the the Dark Web is The Onion Browser, referred to as TOR.
The Dark Web is much smaller than the Deep Web, and it's made up of numerous types of sites. But it's perhaps most popular for its anonymous marketplaces that often sell illegal products like drugs or weapons
There's a hidden part of the internet that is much larger than the parts of the web you use every day.
When you're checking your email, shopping online, or Facebooking, you are using what is referred to as the "Surface Web" or "Visible Web."
This is the key difference between the two in real data terms; sites on the surface internet are indexed for search engines to find, but the deep web is not indexed. ... The Dark Web IS part of the Deep Web, but it has one major difference in that it has been intentionally hidden and is inaccessible to normal web browsers.
Darknet markets
Silk Road was really the first successful anonymous marketplace that thrived on the Dark Web.
Founded in 2011, Silk Road adopted an Amazon-like platform for vendors to buy and sell goods with the use of bitcoin, an untraceable digital currency. The Silk Road's consumer-friendly approach and its guaranteed anonymity helped it quickly become the go-to website for contraband.
By the time it was shut down in 2013, the marketplace had accumulated 1,400 vendors and 957,079 registered users, and it had brokered more than 1.2 million transactions worth $214 million, according to the FBI.
Since Silk Road's demise, numerous illicit marketplaces like Agora and AlphaBay have taken its place, and business is actually growing.