'Dark till the last mile' --- I like how Ndeye puts this! For the markets of traditional illegal products (guns, drugs, etc), the 'delivery' is done the way it would be done anyhow, without the darkweb.

What darkweb adds is a guaranteed anonymity of a buyer, an ease to search and find what you want ('market' in its full meaning), and easy and safe monetary transactions (crypto). In addition, most dark markets (ie operators of those sites) play a role of an intermediary - double-checking who are the members (especially in 'darker' forums), and ensuring escrows (ie they take over the payment and save it, only passing it to the seller once the product is delivered).

I have heard stories about drugs, for instance: it is shipped through an ordinary post (which doesn't check this by default - most of the items could actually be delivered by the post, see the exhibition example below) to the address of an abandoned house. There is no direct contact between the buyer and the seller at all. I guess this is just one of many ways they operate.

Source author: Vladimir Radunovic vladar@diplomacy.edu