in this video, we're going to talk about dark web markets and an introduction to understanding what markets actually are.
so you probably know some of the history around markets and in a different video, we'll actually cover a more in- depth history about markets and takedowns and how they happened.
but at a high level, dark web markets really exist to avoid censorship.
people want to buy and sell goods that are generally illegal.
and so they place them on the tor network where anonymity is king and people can't normally track back who runs the market, the sellers of the items or anything like that.
it's important to note though, that markets are likely illegal where you are.
even accessing them might be illegal.
so you definitely need to check your local and state law if you want to even browse them just for fun, because that is likely illegal and definitely ordering anything off of them, especially legal goods is going to be breaking the law within your country.
so don't do that.
be smart about it.
but we do cover the information in this course from an educational standpoint only.
most of these sites are, like i said earlier, posted on tor or using the tor network.
you'll find most of them related to.
onion links and hosted on tor itself, although there are i two p options as well.
sellers and buyers exist on the marketplaces.
they connect, they exchange their goods.
marketplaces don't usually directly sell the items.
marketplaces themselves host the platform where sellers and buyers can exchange the items.
and besides the obvious legal risks of markets, markets often get taken down.
the screenshot, for example, is from a very popular one back in 2017 called alpha bay, which was seized in combination with another market.
and sometimes markets themselves will run away with the money.
a lot of the money in escrow, the market is holding and they will do what's known as an exit scam, meaning they take all that crypto and run and there's no chance of recovering that crypto once they are gone.
and a lot of markets themselves have led to arrests and jail time.
alpha bay and hansa market, for example, were ran by government agencies for a while while they collected information on users, attempted to de- anonymize users, things like that.
and then they were arrested and jailed.
a lot of people were from those ones.
so you have to be very careful about ever considering using markets and i wouldn't suggest doing so.
but dark web markets aren't all bad.
they have their security benefits, which is why we're here and what we're talking about.
we're talking about how markets are secure and what kind of an anonymity they bring to the dark web.
usually they focus very highly on security.
they have minimal things like javascript that would de- anonymize users.
they have escrow, which can help protect buyers.
those sellers on there ship anywhere in the world and do so discreetly.
and of course these markets operate using bitcoin or monero.
usually they do also accept other coins as currency and exchange.
and that's a general high level overview of dark web markets.
if you want to learn more, of course, if you're in the markets course right now, while you're in the right place.
if you're watching this video from the free course though, definitely check out the dark web markets masterclass, where we dive deep into how criminals use dark web markets, how people actually create dark web markets, how buyers and sellers operate and more.