When you ask someone to list the names of the websites they know, they might stuck up at 100 or 200. Or a few geeks might reach 500. It is estimated that all the surface websites (Google, Facebook, Yahoo etc..) count is roughly more than one billion. Wow? That surely is a very big number, but what if that count is just 1% of the total internet? Isn't that amazing?

                 Deep web, popularly known as the "Invisible web" is an anonymous, secretive and darkest part of the internet. According to the various studies, the number of 'deep websites' is estimated to be more than 550 billion (the number might be more as the deep web is unfathomable and is growing exponentially). From boring theories to buying human organs (illegally), they include everything.

What exactly is deep web?

                  All the popular search engines like google, yahoo, bing etc.. do not trace the dynamic activity of your pages. They capture the sites by following the links between them and thus, the websites are indexed. All this static data is crawled, like the web threads of a spider. Hence, the name "spider software".

                  These search engines cannot trace the private networks and standalone pages which are encrypted. So, this part of the internet is never indexed. This is a part of "deep web". in simple words, deep web is the part of the internet which cannot be accessed by the conventional search engines.

How to access the deep web?

                  No deep website can be accessed through the conventional search engines. They're accessible only by using TOR (The Onion Router) browser. TOR browser relies on the relay system which bounce back the signal within the TOR connected network throughout the world.

                   All these sites are hidden by using Tor Hidden Service Protocol. The traffic is routed through a series of onion- like layer servers within the Tor network. The identity of the person who hosts the servers and the identity of the person who's using remains anonymous, until anyone of them is negligent enough. However, the website owners will always have a better advantage than the user.

                  The Onion Routing Project is first incepted in 2002, by the US Naval system in order to make private conversations and allegations. However, it gave room to innumerable illegal activities later.  

                  Tor recommends its users to strictly follow the instructions provided on their homepage. Apart from that, experts recommend to cover your webcam with a tape in order to prevent its activity. Never be careless while using Tor!

The Misuse of Cryptographic Currency
                It is evident to the world that bitcoin is a form of digital cryptographic currency, created and held electronically. None controls it. The transactions through bitcoins are highly secured and mystified; the end receiver and the payer details will remain anonymous i.e, no one will know who paid it, who received it.

                         This paved a way for the fraudulent groups to start their illegal transactions through bitcoins., giving an upper hand to the criminals. All the illegal activities that take place in the deep web world use bitcoins as their transaction medium. Currently, the value of one bitcoin is equal to 612 US Dollars. 

Read next part to know about a few terrifying facts about Deep Web