In 2018, former Google executive Eric Schmidt announced the coming split of the Internet into two halves - one dominated by the US and the other by China.
While this prediction has not come true, columnist Jeff Desjardins of Visual Capitalist notes that the Internet is already markedly divided into indexed and non-indexed. Indexed Internet is something that we all know very well - from websites with pictures and gifs to the page where you read it all.
Some of the non-indexed Internet may also be familiar to you. This, for example, online banking, content on paid pages, or what is behind pages that require a username and password. Much of this portion of the Internet, called the Deep Internet, is not indexed.
Looking under the surface
Outside of the readily available Internet resources lies the "dark Internet", which can be accessed mainly through special software such as the TOR browser or I2P. Without going into too much detail, we can say that requests directed through TOR are redirected multiple times before reaching their destination. This allows people to remain anonymous in order to use the content of the dark web.
The public perceives the "dark internet" as a digital Wild West, a place where any vicious desires can be satisfied and where the law has no effect. There is some truth to this, as the dark web markets sell anything from illegal drugs to stolen databases of personal information.
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One of the earliest and most well-known dark side markets was the Silk Road, which opened in early 2011. By the third anniversary of its existence, it had reached a turnover of about $ 22 million per year.
Markets don't last long
It should come as no surprise that governments are not particularly happy with the dark web markets that operate outside of government regulation and taxation. Law enforcement agencies and institutions, whose names usually consist of three letters, have thrown significant forces to fight them, and, I must say, the results have been mixed.
The Silk Road raid ended this popular market, but it led to the emergence of dozens of new markets seeking to fill the void. It should be noted that only a few of them have existed for more than a year, and on average, the market life on the "dark Internet" is only eight months.
Some markets are closing, but larger markets tend to fall victim to law enforcement raids. The most notable examples of the latter are the 2014 Onymous operations and the 2017 Bayonet and Grave Sec operations, which closed the popular AlphaBay and Hansa markets. To imagine the scale, for example, of the Hansa market, suffice it to say that at the peak of its existence it offered more than 24 thousand names of drugs.
According to the European Drug Control Organization (EMCDDA), there are currently nine active markets. However, if you rely on statistics, some of them will disappear by the end of the year.
While giants such as Google and Amazon set the tone for the indexed web, commerce in the depths of the Internet is constantly changing.