Silk Road, the dark web's first widely used market, proved the real-world utility of bitcoin

The Silk Road was an ancient series of trade routes between East Asia and Europe

Founded by the Han Chinese in 130 BCE, the Silk Road was a series of trade routes connecting eastern China with the Mediterranean and the rest of Europe. The Persians created a predecessor series of routes, but the Chinese solidified the Silk Road, where travelers traded commerce, ideas, and more.

As of 2025, an estimated $3.2B in annual revenue flows through dark web platforms

The untraceable cryptocurrency Monero is used in about 60% of transactions across more than 37 active marketplaces that sell copyrighted materials, private information, and phishing kits—tools that help bad actors more easily create fake sites to steal users' data—for financial fraud.

See a collection of ancient Roman coins used on the Silk Roads

As ancient Rome's appetite for eastern luxuries grew, long-distance trade routes linking the Mediterranean to Asia emerged along what became known as the Silk Road. Without shared language or legal systems, merchants could use the reliable Roman coins to exchange with other cultures. This exhibit features gold and silver pieces bearing the portraits of emperors and Latin inscriptions.

A US Department of Defense research lab developed the technology for the dark web

Although encryption existed to mask the content of communications across the internet before the 1990s, those managing overseas network infrastructure could determine a spy's affiliation based on where they saw data sent to and received from. To keep this information secret, the US Naval Research Laboratory developed onion routing, which enabled anonymized web browsing. The release of the technology to the public obscured sensitive communications further by growing the volume of anonymous data.

The dark web can expose anonymous users to potentially dangerous environments

Browsing the dark web requires onion routing, which prevents visitors from being identified and the locations from which they connect from being traced. This has been useful to activists in environments affected by political oppression or instability. However, those unfamiliar with navigating the space may encounter malware and network attacks from denizen hackers.

Two Papa John's pizzas were the first real-world transaction involving cryptocurrency.

Fraud and identity theft are among the most common dark web-related crimes.

Accessing the dark web is legal in the US, the EU, and most countries worldwide

As long as users do not pay for illegal goods or services or acquire illegal content, they cannot be prosecuted. Those on the dark web include academics, researchers, and cybersecurity experts gathering threat intelligence on cybercriminals, cyberterrorists, and state actors, as well as protesters, activists, and grassroots organizers.

Jimmy Zhong pulled off one of the biggest bitcoin heists in history

Jimmy Zhong performed a bitcoin heist—stealing more than 51,000 BTC from Silk Road in 2012. For years, he stayed under the radar, using crypto mixers to hide his tracks. But one small mistake in 2019 led investigators straight to him.

Opium's history traces from religious use to mass-market commercial products

Religious or medical use of opium was present across Europe and Asia as early as 5000 BCE. By the 16th century, humanity had come to see opium as more than medicine: It was a marketable product. This perspective also defines today's relationship with opioids, highly addictive painkillers at the heart of an ongoing drug crisis.

Marketplaces on the dark web provide eBay-like vendor feedback scores

An HP analysis found that 77% of cybercriminal marketplaces require vendors to purchase a license to sell their products, which can cost up to $3,000. About 92% of these marketplaces also use a third-party dispute-resolution service to handle customer service issues, thereby promoting "honor among thieves."

Bitcoin, the oldest and most popular cryptocurrency, is a digital cash alternative introduced in 2009 that rapidly grew in popularity and now boasts a global user base.

As of April 2022, a million people access Facebook on the dark web monthly

While those using an anonymized web browser, such as Tor, have been able to access the social network's .onion site since 2014, the announcement marks a major milestone by the tech giant, which has worked to ensure its users can bypass restrictions by various governments and continue visiting the site.

The dark web makes up about 0.01% of all the data on the internet

The surface web (5%-10%) consists of indexed sites—those traditional search engines have visited and stored so users can discover them via web search. The remaining 90%-95% makes up the deep web, which is not indexed and includes email and banking portals that require login credentials. The dark web is unindexed and requires anonymizing software to visit.

The dark web protects free speech from censorship and authoritarian oversight

Encrypted networks allow users with internet access anywhere in the world to view blocked content and avoid surveillance when communicating evidence of abuse to independent journalists. The same networks can support democracies by helping activists coordinate protests on dark web forums.

The dark web cannot be stumbled upon by accident

Many pages on the dark web are not publicly broadcast and are available only to relevant parties on a need-to-know basis. Although some online directories list the URLs for these webpages, connecting to them still requires specialized software, as these pages block connections from traditional web browsers such as Chrome.

An eye-opening interactive journey into the global drug trade

POPPY Interactive reveals how drug money destabilizes entire countries, fuels global conflicts, and allows a worldwide illegal economy to grow. Navigating the site involves diving into three major routes—the Northern Route, the Balkan Route, and...

Explore content on the dark web safely with the Ahmia search engine, which has provided activists with digital addresses to anonymously send files to media outlets.

Hardline China critics in the US worry that China's Belt and Road Initiative is a Trojan horse for military expansion efforts

The Belt and Road Initiative, initially launched in 2013 to develop trade routes throughout Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, has evolved into a larger infrastructure development initiative in developing countries. The BRI is backed by the Silk Road Fund, which is administered by the two most prominent Chinese sovereign wealth funds.

The deep web accounts for 90-95% of the internet

Within the Deep Web is the small and hidden Dark Web, which is inaccessible via traditional web browsers. Dark Web inhabitants are anonymous and use special software to access encrypted websites that can assist with both free speech and criminal activity.

Watch an ethical hacker provide a tour of the dark web

Cybersecurity researcher John Hammond explores the effectiveness of a dark web search engine, leaks from ransomware group data breaches, and a categorized index of dark web links, including some that are alleged to host malware. Many dark web sites are no longer active or host scams to fool unsuspecting visitors.

A 2020 study suggests just 6.7% of Tor network users visit sites on the dark web

It did not distinguish between visits to malicious sites and traffic to legitimate institutions with .onion domains, such as the BBC or Buzzfeed, and thus claimed that 6.7% of anonymized users engage in nefarious activity. The low percentage still highlights that most users of the technology underlying the dark web do not use it to browse the hidden portion of the internet.

Individuals have been convicted of ordering assassinations from the dark web

Researchers have uncovered online storefronts allegedly run by members of various mafia or hitmen that offer to harm or murder individuals in exchange for monetary payment. However, no known murder has been attributed to any of them, and cybercrime task forces believe them to be scams (warning—sensitive content).

Bitcoin explained and made simple

Bitcoin, the most popular and well-known example of a cryptocurrency, came on the scene around 2010, with its evangelists proclaiming it would eventually displace government-backed traditional cash. While the concept of a digital currency may seem straightforward, the details can be deceptively simple. This quick video overview provides the foundation for a deeper dive into the world of decentralized currency.

How ancient Romans invested and worked

The first stock exchange didn't open for business until the early 1600s, but that didn't stop the Ancient Romans from working and investing their money centuries before. While Romans are better known for their political inventions than their economic ones, understanding how they viewed money can help paint a better picture of the Roman mindset that created systems like democracy. Read this article to learn more.

Technical vulnerabilities prevent full-proof anonymity when browsing the dark web

Despite encrypting data and relaying it within the Tor network, traffic between the network exit and the final destination is no longer hidden and can be captured. Law enforcement agencies can also attempt to deanonymize users by monitoring and matching data signal patterns entering and leaving the network via a correlation algorithm.

Check the real-time price of bitcoin

Bitcoin has gone through several boom and bust cycles. Those peaks and valleys sit on top of a steadily rising value, growing as the currency gains wider adoption. As of 2024, bitcoin’s total market value was over $1.3T, with more than 19.6 million coins in circulation. Still, the value fluctuates.

eCash paved the way for today’s popular crypto investments

Bitcoin is typically cited as the first decentralized cryptocurrency. But some argue that back in the 1990s, eCash was technically the first cryptocurrency, although it wasn't decentralized.

Evidence of opium use dates to as early as 5000 BCE

Archaeological evidence shows the use of the poppy plant for its pain-killing properties likely originated in the Mediterranean before making its way to the East and West via trade. It has since inspired two eponymous wars, and highly addictive derivatives of the naturally occurring substance have led to an ongoing overdose crisis.

Cryptocurrency acts as a store of value

Traditional money, dating back to its first known uses in ancient Babylonia, has many uses—it reduces friction in transactions by providing a common denominator of value (unit of account), acts as a single item accepted by many vendors (medium of exchange), and holds wealth as a store of value.

Psychoactive drugs found in 1,000-year-old bag made of fox noses

Archaeologists in Bolivia have uncovered an ancient bag filled with "amazing goodies" that suggests the owner or owners were well-versed in the properties of psychoactive substances and sourced goods from well-established trade routes. This article details the findings, which shed light on how ancient peoples in the region consumed and obtained psychoactive substances.

Fast, cheap, and deadly: How fentanyl replaced heroin and hooked America

This interactive article details how fentanyl has largely replaced heroin in the drug trade, with fatal results. Fentanyl was first developed in 1959 as an anesthetic for pain relief, but the drug took hold in the US black market in 2014 and has since exploded in the intervening decade.

Instead of .com or similar, web addresses on the dark web end in 'd.onion'

Since the latest version of the onion routing protocol, dark web domain names consist of a random set of 56 alphanumeric characters followed by .onion (e.g., propublica.org → p53lf57qovyuvwsc6xnrppyply3vtqm7l6pcobkmyqsiofyeznfu5uqd.onion). The last character is always "d" due to the encryption algorithm's requirements.

Explore metrics on the Tor network, the infrastructure of the dark web

While internet traffic within the network is concealed, public, nonsensitive data can be used to estimate the number of active users, the number of relay servers, network performance speed and reliability, etc. Researchers can use this data to indirectly identify political upheavals or censorship campaigns worldwide, such as the Arab Spring.

A map of global drug trafficking

The worldwide illegal drug trade continues to flourish. Accounting for almost 1% of the world’s financial revenue, the cocaine trade alone boasts an annual turnover of an estimated $85 billion. This infographic, from Around the World: An Atlas for...

The origin of the World Wide Web, plus a look at its first website and web browser

Invented by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 while working at CERN—home of the world's largest particle physics laboratory—the Web was developed to facilitate the sharing of information among scientists at institutions worldwide. By the end of 1990, the first Web server was operational as a proof-of-concept on a NeXT workstation.

Only 21 million bitcoin will ever be created—what happens then?

Bitcoin is a popular cryptocurrency with a finite supply, and the issuance of new bitcoins is currently offered as a reward for verifying the transactions on the blockchain. Experts say the currency won't reach its limit until the year 2140, and miners may ultimately rely on transaction fees.

Bitcoin's founder has always remained anonymous

A pseudonym used by the person or group of people who created bitcoin—the first decentralized cryptocurrency—the real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto has baffled millions of enthusiasts for years.

Who accepts bitcoin payments in 2025?

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are used primarily as stores of value or speculative assets, and less likely to be used to purchase goods and services. Advocates for the currency say as an increasing number of retailers accept bitcoin, average holders will begin to treat the currency more like traditional money.

The Sears catalog sold some weird products before it folded, including drugs

At various times in its existence, the Sears catalog sold everything from heroin to tombstones. But by the 2000s, the catalog was no longer in publication.

Trudging through the dark web to expose child abuse

A computer expert who created a system to track down sources of revenge porn and an investigative journalist joined forces to investigate digital abuse. Their investigations focused on so-called clear nets, websites that make up the web most users surf. Then, they turned their investigation toward the dark web, where they found a child abuse website with more than 1 million registered users.

Web3 is the successor to our current version of the Internet

Web1 (existing roughly from 1990 to 2005) was about decentralized and community-governed open protocols. Most of the value accrued to the edges of the network: users and builders. Web2 (roughly 2005 through 2020) was about siloed, centralized services run by corporations.

Over-the-counter markets are used to bypass traditional exchanges while trading

Commodities are regularly traded via OTC markets so that buyers and sellers can bypass central exchanges and negotiate terms more directly. Before the advent of formal exchanges, most assets were traded OTC.

How the Myanmar coup fueled a rise in illegal drugs

According to the UN, Myanmar remains the world’s second-largest producer of heroin. Inside Myanmar, almost all the drugs come from one place: Shan state in the Golden Triangle region, south of China, where Myanmar meets Thailand and Laos. The...

BNPL has 19th-century roots, but the pandemic made it mainstream

The modern BNPL model didn't take off until the COVID-19 pandemic, when consumers were stuck at home and lockdowns forced them to shop online rather than in person. The number of US BNPL loans grew more than tenfold from 2019 (16.8 million) to 2021 (180 million), according to a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau report.

What are smart contracts?

Smart contracts are potentially one of the most useful tools associated with blockchain, and they can enable the transfer of everything from Bitcoin and fiat currency to goods transported around the world. Here’s what they do and why they’re likely to gain traction.

FTX, one of the world's largest crypto exchanges, collapsed in 2022

As crypto markets declined during the post-pandemic slowdown, Sam Bankman-Fried propped up the markets with billions he'd earned leading FTX, one of the largest crypto exchanges. Then, in one of the most rapid financial implosions in modern history, the exchange collapsed as investors rushed to withdraw money.

Since its introduction, the price of bitcoin has experienced significant volatility

Driven in large part by speculation and intense social media attention during the pandemic, along with the availability of capital during near-zero interest rate periods, the price has seen at least three major crashes despite steadily increasing over the long run since 2014.

Crypto's origins date back to 1983

While crypto feels new, it actually dates to 1983, with eCash's creation. However, a lot has happened in the crypto world over the past few years in particular—crypto's market cap surpassed $2T for the first time in 2021, for instance. A timeline of crypto's history details the events in between.

How the internet became the World Wide Web: a visualization

The internet was officially born in 1983 and had more than 150 million global users by 1997, creating an international web of seemingly separate networks. This data visualization shows the growth of the internet from 1997 to 2021. Data in this...