The dark web: what it is, how it works, and why it's not going away

2014 saw the continued growth of the dark web, a collection of underground websites that allow people to engage in often-illegal activities beyond the reach of law enforcement.

People use the dark web for a variety of purposes: buying and selling drugs, discussing hacking techniques and selling hacking services, trading child pornography, and so forth. A digital black market needs the digital equivalent of cash, and that's exactly what Bitcoin is. Bitcoin, like cash, allows transactions to be made anonymously. And with no one in charge of the Bitcoin network, there's no one with the authority to block illicit transactions. (The dark web is not the same as the deep web; the deep web is a broader concept. It refers to all online content that's not accessible to search engines.) The government is unlikely to ever fully suppress the dark web for the same reason that law enforcement has never been able to eliminate conventional black markets: there's a lot of demand for the information and products offered on these sites, and there's always going to be someone willing to take the risks involved in meeting that demand.