The Deep Web
Tommy Gavin
2012-12-17
http://www.universitytimes.ie/2012/12/17/the-deep-web/...
One of the reasons the site can operate with impunity is because the preferred currency is the Bitcoin, another indispensable service to the anonymous web user of distinction. Not reliant on a bank or government, Bitcoin uses a log across a peer-to-peer system, run by the people who use it.
They are mathematically derived valued function that supposedly can’t be stolen because the user is embedded in the function from which they were derived. To generate them, you download a Bitcoin software client, which generates 36 character addresses or accounts to receive Bitcoin payments. The currency is stored on your computer in a “wallet” and you can send them to the wallets of others. The sender’s computer sends the information to the network, which validates the transaction. Due to the fact that the only information identifying a user is the Bitcoin address, the transaction is almost anonymous (though the transactions are recorded in a public log, so law enforcement could in theory use network analysis techniques to track down individual users).
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The typical tabloid response to the Deep Web is one of “ban this filth,” but nobody talks about banning paper to stop people printing child pornography. Even if something could be done about the anonymity and the hidden nature of the Deep Web, what would it be for? These are questions we need to think long and hard about, because things aren’t going back to the way they were.
