For most people, the websites and services that they use on a daily basis are part of the mainstream internet.
These websites are visited by millions of users worldwide and are easily accessible to everyone.

Beyond the mainstream, there is also a deep web. I know that it sounds kind of sinister, but in reality, the deep web is just the part of the internet that is private.
For example, emails, online banking accounts, and paid services are all part of the deep web.

However, as we go deeper into the layers of the web, we get to the dark web.

So what exactly is the dark web?

“The dark web is the portion of the internet that cannot be indexed by search engines.”

That is the proper definition of the dark web.
Simply put, when you search for something on google, you get millions of search results depending on your keyword.

The websites that you see are part of the mainstream and are easily accessible to search engines.

Dark web sites never show up on google as they require a special browser to be accessed.

How to access the dark web?

In order to access the dark web, you need to have a VPN and a browser that makes you anonymous on the internet.

Known as Tor, this browser is heavily encrypted. As you perform any search through Tor, it encrypts your data and decrypts it at different layers.

The encryption method used by Tor makes it very difficult to identify anyone from their online traffic, making it a very secure browser.

This is why it is the browser of choice for accessing the dark web.

Once you have your VPN and Tor running, you can start to surf the entirety of the web anonymously. In order to find the different sites on the dark web, you can use the Hidden Wiki.

Hidden Wiki contains a list of the different websites that can be found on the dark web, and for someone that is new, it can be a starting point to find what they are looking for.

What will I find on the dark web?

As far as what you can expect to find on the dark web, it is quite predictable. The dark web is mostly used for illicit activity.

Cyber criminals trade credit card details, hacked accounts(this includes social media accounts, emails, and much more), drugs, weapons, etc.

Besides illicit e-commerce websites, you can also find forums and blogs on the dark web. These websites are sort of news outlets for what happens on the dark web on a daily basis.

Users go on forums to discuss and rate different stores that are found on the dark web. Blogs post the most interesting stories about what goes on in the community.

While it is not inherently dangerous to visit the dark web, it is very risky to download anything from there.

Even if you decide to visit the dark web, make sure that you avoid downloading anything for your safety. Getting malware from downloaded files is a very common occurrence.

Has cryptocurrency facilitated the rise of the dark web?

The rise of cryptocurrency has made it much easier to conduct business on the dark web. Before the rise of crypto, the weakest link in any transaction conducted through the dark web was the
payment method.

Traditional payment methods are very easy to trace by nature. This allows governments to limit illegal activity. Crypto, on the other hand, is very hard to trace, making it the ideal currency for the dark web.

As crypto grew in popularity, so did the dark web. The anonymous method of payment meant that a lot more people were open to the idea of trading on the dark web.