Bitcoin mixers are solutions that let users mix their coins with other users, to preserve their privacy.
Bitcoin is not entirely anonymous as it looks. It is partially anonymous because one does not need to give personal details to do bitcoin transactions or while opening an anonymous wallet.
Bitcoin transactions are entirely transparent. Every single transaction of bitcoins is logged permanently on the open-source network called the blockchain. Anyone with a small knowledge can view the entire transaction details like the sender’s total wallet balance, the amount spent from the blockchain with just the transaction hash.
And there is always some metadata associated with bitcoin transactions.
The transactions might be linked to a person associated with using it. For example, if you are exchanging bitcoins from a bitcoin exchange, the exchange must have verified your identity, this way the address can be linked back to your wallet.
Imagine you are buying an illegal item from a dark web store, your real identity can be traced back within a matter of minutes.
This is where the phenomena called Bitcoin mixers to come into play. Bitcoin mixers allow the users to mix their coins with the large bitcoin pool. Imagine you have a King of hearts, instead of using it directly, you shuffle the card with a deck of cards and get back another card. Retrieved new card mostly is not going to be the same card.
How Do Bitcoin Mixers Work?
There are multiple strategies developed over the years. The most used strategies are Centralized Mixers and Chaumian CoinJoin Mixers.
The first method Centralized Mixers accept bitcoin payments and send different coins to users in return. If more people use the same mixing system, it increases the shuffling more, thus increasing privacy. One major drawback in this approach is that the mixing system knows exactly which user sent and received which coins, the mixer could re-establish the trail of ownership.
The second method CoinJoin is a trustless method for joining multiple Bitcoin from multiple senders into a single transaction. This to make it more difficult for outside parties to determine which spender paid which recipient. This system can be designed in such a way that the merger itself won’t be knowing user trails.
Popular Bitcoin Mixers
Bitcoin Laundry
SmartMix
smartmixer
Wasabi Wallet
Chipmixer
CryptoMixer
We do not promote any bitcoin mixers, the above-displayed information is only for informative and educational purposes.
Why mix your bitcoins
Everyone wants to protect their privacy. No one wants to expose the number of coins they own or how much they spent.
You may be investing your income in Bitcoins and you want to spend a fraction of bitcoins somewhere, if you spend it directly, the recipient would easily know the number of coins you own if they view the blockchain transaction history.
You may be buying gay porn. Being gay may be a crime in your country. You surely don’t want others to find out that you are gay.
You are willing to buy illegal guns or drugs from the dark web. You don’t want cops to show up next morning enquiring about it.
Using bitcoins mixers surely increases the user’s privacy, no doubt in that.
Are they trustworthy?
In recent times, the authorities have banned many bitcoin mixers claimed that they used to involve money laundering.
Even the famous mixers are shutting down their services without any prior notice. This may lead to the loss of the user’s individual bitcoins.
If centralized mixing service faces shut down, the decentralized mixers will rise. These would be harder to ban.
An escrow is a mutual financial arrangement where a third party holds and regulates payment of the funds required for two parties involved in a given business. That third party is known as an escrow provider, who holds the funds temporarily and makes the transaction safer.
The word Escrow derived from Old French word escroue.
Escrow Basics
If you are doing a big transaction, you will be wondering whether you can trust the other person or party involved in the transaction. Introducing a neutral party like escrow in a transaction minimalizes the risk for both the parties.
When you are committed to buy or sell anything, you always agree to certain terms. Using escrow makes sure that your certain terms are met.
Escrow service might include escrow service fees charged by the escrow agent who holds the funds or assets until appropriate instructions are received from both the parties.
Escrows are mostly used in real estate transactions but can be applied to any business where funds pass from one party to another.
How does Escrow Work?
Buyer and Seller mutually agree to terms
Buyer or Seller initiates the request with the escrow along with the agreed terms
Buyer pays the agreed fund to the Escrow
The seller delivers the product or service to the buyer
Buyer accepts the product or service
Escrow releases the fund to the seller on confirmation from both parties
Where Escrow can be used
Internet Escrow
Real estate
Intellectual property
Law
Mergers and acquisitions
Gambling
Motor Vehicles
Milestone Transactions
Escrow in Dark Web
Almost 95% of the shopping experience on the dark web are scams. There is no way the payments can be tracked on the dark web. As most of the transactions in the dark web happen using some cryptocurrency like bitcoins, there is no guarantee that the seller will be delivering the product as promised.
In situations like this, Escrows are a must in dark web purchases. It provides buyer and seller protection that the product will be delivered. From a customer’s perspective, it may be extra cost involved. But if we consider the risk factor associated with dark web transactions, it has a greater advantage.
But still, we don’t want to recommend the authenticity of any escrows in Dark web. So, we won’t post any Dark web escrow links in this post.
Silk Road was an internet black market and the first modern-day darknet market. It was founded by Ross William Ulbricht (also known as Dread Pirate Roberts) born in Texas, the U.S. who had a different ideology.
He believed everyone should have the right to buy, sell whatever they want as long as they did not harm anyone.
If we summarise it, it made Ulbricht a millionaire, and later a convict.
It may sound like a Hollywood movie but it is true. Hollywood actor Keanu Reeves narrated a 2015 documentary on the Silk Road legend called Dark Web which chronicles the rise and fall of the black market and its founder.
Initial Days
SilkRoad was first launched in February 2011. Ulbricht started his dark web marketplace development in 2010. It was a side project to Good Wagon Books. The project was designed to use Tor and bitcoin. It was destined that his marketplace to become the catalyst for a revolution.
When it started, there were a limited number of new seller accounts available. So, every new seller has to purchase a merchant account in an auction. Later, each merchant has to give a fixed fee.
How did it work?
As it operated as a Tor hidden service, users considered communications on Silk Road were entirely anonymous. Besides, transactions on Silk Road could only be made using bitcoins.
For customers, the main benefit it had over its rivals was that it was trustworthy.
Same like eBay, it would match consumers and dealers, allows both parties to rate each other, and provide products to be delivered directly to customers’ doors through the unsuspecting mail service.
His website connected nearly 4,000 drug traders around the world to sell their drugs to more than 100,000 buyers, and could you get you anything you want from fake documents to top-quality heroin.
It is estimated that in its very short span, over $1 billion transferred through Silk Road, giving Ulbricht a secret fortune of an estimated $28 million at the time of his arrest.
Products in Silk Road
Initial listings on Silk Road were to be restricted to products that resulted in ‘victimless crimes’. On that foundation, products linked to the likes of stolen credit cards, assassinations, weapons of mass destruction and child pornography were banned.
Ulbricht was unable to maintain the website standards that he had initially considered and indeed had eased the policy on forbidding the sale of weapons based on a view that increased firearm regulations were making it more difficult for oneself to buy guns, in contradiction with his libertarian values. Besides, as the site evolved, more and more ‘contraband’ products started to be posted.
They also had legal services and products for sales, such as art, apparel, books, jewelry, cigarettes, erotica, and writing services. An associate site, called “The Armoury”, sold weapons (essential firearms) during 2012, but was closed, due to a lack of demand.
The End of the Silk Road
Even though the officials were aware of the presence of Silk Road in the dark web within a few months of its launch, it took over a couple of years for Ulbricht’s identity to be revealed.
Ulbricht may have added a reference to Silk Road on his LinkedIn profile, where he addressed his desire to “use economic theory as a means to end the use of coercion and aggression amongst humanity” and also declared, “I am creating an economic simulation to give people a first-hand experience of what it would be like to live in a world without the systemic use of force.”
He relocated to San Francisco before his capture.
In mid-2013, an investigator Gary Alford first related Ulbricht to “Dread Pirate Roberts”, who was working with the DEA on the Silk Road case.
The link was made by connecting the username “altoid”, which Ulbricht used during his early days to announce the darknet market and a forum post in which he, using the nickname “altoid”, requested for programming help sharing his email address, which included his full name.
On an October midday in a public library in San Francisco, Ulbricht’s goal of an online libertarian paradise came to a sudden end. The FBI had finally caught up with Ulbricht having infiltrated the Silk Road.
At the time of his arrest, he was logged into his Silk Road Market as an administrator and using was his Dread Pirate Roberts pseudonym to unknowingly communicate with a secret FBI representative. They discovered that his seized laptop had tens of millions of dollars of bitcoin on it, with millions more stored on USB drives found in his apartment.
The laptop also had Ulbricht’s private diary, which contained damaging evidence against him. Within hours of his capture, Silk Road’s domain had been seized, the online black market was shut down and Ulbricht’s grand plans to make the world a better place were in chaos.
Aftermath – Silk Road
As part of their probe into Silk Road, the FBI had caught up with several other Silk Road users and administrators while hunting for Dread Pirate Robert. Prosecutors alleged that Ulbricht paid $730,000 to others to commit the murders, although none of the murders occurred.
The Feds seized 26,000 bitcoins from accounts on Silk Road, it was estimated 3.6 million USD at the time. An FBI spokesperson said that the agency would sell the bitcoins once Ulbricht’s trial finishes.
The FBI announced that it had grabbed 144,000 bitcoins belonged to Ulbricht, worth $28.5 million in October 2013.
The complaint issued when Ulbricht was arrested held information the FBI gained a system image collected from the Silk Road server on 23 July 2013.
It noted that “From February 6, 2011, to July 23, 2013, in two years there were approximately 1,229,465 transactions performed on the site. The total revenue generated from these sales was 9,519,664 Bitcoins, and the Silk Road collected total commissions from the sales amounted to 614,305 Bitcoins. These are equivalent to approximately $1.2 billion in revenue and $79.8 million in commissions, at current Bitcoin exchange rates…”, according to the September 2013 complaint, and involved 146,946 buyers and 3,877 vendors.
On 27 June 2014, the U.S. Marshals Service auctioned 29,657 bitcoins online in 10 blocks, estimated to be worth $18 million at that time. It is only about a quarter of the seized bitcoins. Another 144,342 bitcoins which had been found on Ulbricht’s computer were kept, roughly $87 million.
Trial
On 13 January 2015, Ulbricht’s trial began in federal court in Manhattan. When the trail started, Ulbricht admitted to founding the Darkweb market Silk Road but he claimed to have transferred control then to other people soon after establishing the site.
During the second week of the trial, prosecutors presented documents and chat logs from Ulbricht’s seized computer that, they said, showed how Ulbricht had administered it for many months, which denied the defense’s claim that Ulbricht had relinquished control of the site. Ulbricht’s lawyer proposed that the chat logs and documents were planted inside by way of BitTorrent (a torrent downloading client), which was running on Ulbricht’s computer during the time of his arrest.
On 4 February 2015, Ulbricht was convicted of seven different charges, including charges of engaging in a criminal enterprise organization, computer hacking, money laundering, and narcotics trafficking. They sentenced him 30 years to life in prison.
The government also accused him of funding for the murders of at least five people, but there is no evidence to prove that the murders were carried out, and the allegations never became formal charges against Ulbricht.
During the trial, Judge Forrest received death threats. Users of “The Hidden Wiki”, a dark web website posted the judge’s personal information there, which was having her Social Security number and address. Ulbricht’s attorney Joshua Dratel stated that he and his client “obviously, and as strongly as possible, condemn” the anonymous postings against the judge.
In a letter to Judge Forrest before his sentencing, Ulbricht declared that his activities in Silk Road were committed through libertarian idealism. It stated that “Silk Road was supposed to be about giving people the freedom to make their own choices” and admitted that he made a “terrible mistake” which “ruined his life”.
On 29 May 2015, Ulbricht was ordered to serve five sentences concurrently, which includes two for life imprisonment without any possibility of parole. In addition to his prison sentence, he was also ordered to pay more than $183 million. His lawyer Joshua Dratel said that he would appeal the sentencing and the original guilty verdict.
On 31 May 2017, the US Court of Appeals for the Second time denied his appeal and repeated the judgment of conviction and life sentence.
Ulbricht’s family is still fighting and continues to campaign to “free Ross Ulbricht from a barbaric, double life sentence for all non-violent charges”. They also have a website in place to accept donations towards their lawyer fees.
A .onion domain is a top-level domain suffix that is specially used as an anonymous hidden service and can be accessed through the Tor network. Onion sites are not present in WWW and Regular browsers won’t be able to navigate through the relay of proxy servers that will take users to your website. The address of an onion website can only be accessed through the Tor anonymity browser.
Onion addresses are not DNS names as the .onion TLD is not in the Internet DNS root. But with suitable proxy software and by sending the request via the Tor server network, sites with .onion addresses can be accessed.
How Onion domain is different from an ordinary domain?
Ordinary web domains,
like .com, .org, .biz, and others are issued by the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). There are thousands of different domains
out there, but not all of them can be used by everyone (like .apple, for
example). Users have to submit proposals to ICANN to register a domain and
sub-domain (the part before the period). There are usually costs associated
with registering and maintaining the domain of your choice.
If you own or are looking to create a website, you may want to learn how to create a .onion site to protect yourself and your visitors.
Advantages of a .onion address
A .onion domain has a few key advantages over an ordinary domain (but a few drawbacks as well). Its key feature is that it can only be accessed using an anonymizing browser such as Tor browser. This is both a drawback and an advantage. Tor is the most popular browser for accessing onion sites but still many people don’t even know it exists, so it is difficult to get massive traffic on your .onion site.
But the advantage is that the Tor browser affords numerous layers of anonymity that are not available on more popular browsers. If you want to ensure near-total anonymity for both you and your visitors, you can’t do much better than a Tor address. You won’t need to hide your details from “whois” searches, and your ICANN account won’t be vulnerable to malicious takeovers. You will be completely in control of your privacy and your domain.
Domain Format
An onion address is a string of 16 (and in V3 format, 56) mostly random letters and numbers, followed by “.onion”.
These onion addresses are opaque, іnсоmрrеhеnѕіblе and non-mnemonic, 16-character alpha-semi-numeric hashes which are automatically generated whеn а hіddеn ѕеrvісе іѕ соnfіgurеd uѕіng а рublіс kеу. Unfortunately, these random strings cannot be any longer or shorter than 16 characters and are often hard to remember, making it difficult for users to memorize your website and easy for malicious users to create a similar but different domain to potentially confuse visitors.
Difference between v2 and v3 address
An onion address with
16 characters is referred to as a version 2 onion address, and one with 56
characters is a version 3 onion address.
Creating a vanity domain – one featuring a recognizable word of your choice – is possible but computationally expensive. Facebook devoted considerable resources to achieving its .onion domain – facebookcorewwwi.onion – and they only needed 8 characters. Getting the exact 16 characters you want could take a single computer billion of years to achieve.
How to create a .onion domain yourself?
Getting a .onion domain is not only free but they are automatically generated by Tor. It is simple once you have completed the basic server installation procedure. Please read carefully and follow the below steps to create an onion domain. If you find this to be complicated, you can get the help of your tech friend.
1. Create a web server
Tor’s .onion service
can give your existing webserver a .onion domain if it’s configured correctly.
However, the powerful anonymity provided by Tor isn’t worth much if your server
leaks personal data or information that advanced users could use to identify
you. Tor suggests binding your server to localhost. When you set up your .onion
services later, you’ll create a virtual port that visitors can connect through
so you don’t reveal your real IP address.
Make sure you also scrub your server of any other information that might identify you, your IP, or your location. Remove any reference to your server’s information from any error messages that might be sent to visitors.
2. Configure your server’s .onion services
To do this, you’ll have to open your “torrc” file, which is a text file you received when you set up your Tor browser.
Once your setup is complete, turn on your Tor browser to generate a public key, or domain, for your website. After that, it’s up to you to distribute it and get people to visit your site. Just be sure not to share the private key with anyone!
How to buy a Tor hosting?
Even though you can host your onion domain which you created with the above steps. Our personal computer and laptops cant handle so much request from visitors for the site. So below are some of the Tor hosting sites available on the market. We don’t personally recommend any of these Tor hosting provider s. But you can check with them directly for your requirement and host your site.
Impreza
With Impreza, you can manage everything with the cPanel interface and they also provide the option to buy unique vanity .onion domain. Also, there are No documents requested and No personal information is stored on their server. So there is No exposure of information. You can also buy hosting at their Offshore VPS servers and dedicated servers for more freedom and processing. You can pay with Bitcoin or any other crypto, it is safe, easy and free.
OneHost Cloud
OneHost Cloud provides Ultimate in Privacy with Tor Hidden Hosting
and Tor Hidden Services to customers wanting to host their sites with their own
onion address. Users can also either bring their own address or Receive a
random onion address. You can manage and control the tor hosting site via a
dedicated control panel accessible via an onion address. For easy file uploads
and management, you can upload files via FTP or file manager. But the only
downside is that Customers need to be able to manually upload and install
WordPress if they want to use it.
OneHost Cloud has new v3 Onion Addresses available. Customers can now choose between the new v3 addresses or v2 address space.
Don’t use proxies like Tor2web, onion.ly
Even though it is
possible to access these hidden services with browsers such as Chrome, Edge,
and Safari that are not Tor-aware by using like proxies like Tor2web, onion.ly.
Uѕеrѕ lоѕе thеіr оwn аnоnуmіtу bу uѕіng а truѕtеd gаtеwау tо dеlіvеr thе соrrесt
соntеnt.
It is not recommended to browse tor sites using such methods because the browser can bе fіngеrрrіntеd bу bоth thе gаtеwау аnd thе hіddеn ѕеrvісе, аnd thе uѕеr ІР аddrеѕѕ dаtа саn bе ассеѕѕеd. Іn оrdеr tо рrоvіdе а fаѕtеr раgе-lоаdіng thаn thе оffісіаl Тоr Вrоwѕеr, сасhіng tесhnіquеѕ аrе uѕеd bу these рrохіеѕ which is not secure.
The dark web is part of the internet that isn’t visible to search engines and requires the use of an anonymizing browser called Tor to be accessed.
The Dark Web is the murky underbelly of the Internet. This is a lawless domain, where the rule of law doesn’t exist and Bitcoin is the universal currency in the dark web.
The reason for the dark web to grow like this was because of the freedom. There is no government law to moderate the content.
Stepping inside the dark web, we can find the following things
We will see individually with screenshots. As the onion links are confidential and may lead to harm users we have excluded it. Everything you see below is the real screenshot of it. Not manipulated content.
Credit Cards
Anyone with a little knowledge on the dark web can buy a credit card. Some dark web sites sell credit cards with real cash in it. These cards are generated by stealing the card details from Payment gateways and cloning them. Even some sites sell physical cards that can be used the same as normal credit cards for shopping, withdrawals, etc.
Money Transfers
Online money transfers are one of the main businesses in the dark web. It involves real money transfers in different stolen accounts. Most transfers happen in PayPal, Western Union. Some sellers promise to be real but mostly full of scammers claiming to be real. Some sites claim to have access to have PayPal credits generators where they will be able to generate infinite PayPal credits for the customers.
Gift Cards
If you step inside the dark web, you can find marketplaces everywhere. Some genuine marketplaces sell gift cards of Amazon, iTunes, Steam and much more.
Bitcoins
Just like any product you can buy Bitcoins. The mode of payment depends on sellers. Some miners sell real bitcoins for real money.
Counterfeit Money
Today, it’s much easier to create counterfeit bills. Counterfeiting is sufficiently prevalent throughout history that it has been called “the world’s second-oldest profession”. Counterfeit notes were advertised everywhere in the dark web and orders were received either directly or via email.
Drugs
The drugs are very sensitive products and you can’t buy most of the illegal or legal drugs without a doctor’s prescription, But the dark web has multiple web drug sites and stores that deal in all types of legal or illegal drugs.
Government Leaked Data
Some discussion forums accessed via Tor are distinctly unpleasant, but if you’re interested in conspiracy theories, leaked documents and unreported global events. Dark web publishes documents of political or historical importance that are censored or otherwise suppressed.
Forums
No content moderation and no government interference are the practical advantages of why the dark web forums are very popular. Anyone can ask or talk about literally anything without their identity being exposed.
Blueprints
You can find blocked or censored blueprints on the dark web. For example, the blueprints for 3D printing guns are very confidential and not allowed on the surface web, but you can buy it for the price of an iPhone and 3D print it at home.
Electronic Goods
Products like Smartphones, Laptops, Tablet PCs and other gadgets are easily available on the dark web. The main reason it is very cheap on the dark web is there is no country’s tax involved.
Hackers
The dark web has lots of hacker sites, you can hire them for a little hacking job or high profile jobs for hijacking a complete website. Since the dark web exists, hackers are selling their services on there. If you need the services of a hacker and are looking to hire a hacker, there is no better place to do it safely and anonymously than the dark web.
Netflix & Other Streaming Accounts
Pirates are selling hundreds of stolen login details on the dark web for Netflix, HBO, Hulu, and other services, according to new research. It can cost you half the price of the original Netflix account.
Dark Web Hosting Servers
The same way you buy on the regular web – you get a web server on the dark web without giving any personal details. Every tor service provider accepts bitcoins and they support full anonymity. If you want to set up a store on the hidden web it is easy and simple now.
Fake Documents
The dark web enables individuals to get what they need. While there are no guarantees that fake passports and other ID documents purchased on the dark web can get someone access a border, individuals who need a fake ID can purchase it online for a relatively small amount of money.
Hitman
The dark web helps you to hire a hitman for all types of crimes such as damages, rapes, fires, murders and much more.
Weapons and Accessories
Dark web offers pistols, assault weapons, sniper rifles, optics, grenades, launchers, hand grenades, full auto rifles and more.
Child Porn
Child pornography includes rape, sexual torture of innocent children. But this type of child pornography is banned by many dark web links porn sites.
Red Rooms
The red room provides child pornography beyond the rules. TORTURE OF WOMEN. Most of the red room contains torture of women. The user will pay the admin depending upon the privilege and order his wishes to be fulfilled.
Escrows
Escrow is a contractual arrangement in which a third party receives and disburses money or property. As the hidden wiki is fully anonymous and involves huge payments, people prefer Escrows for their shopping experience. There are some real escrow service providers specifically for dark web and illegal products.
Ricin and Other Poisonous Substances
Drugs and chemicals are the primary commodities on the dark web. Some sites sell very poisonous substances like Cyanide, Ricin and more. The Radioactive Poison Being Sold on the Hidden Web appeared first on Dark Web News.
Uranium
Uranium, the kind that can be used to make atomic weapons, can be found on the dark web. As dangerous and dire as this may sound, it’s highly unlikely that anyone could buy enough to weaponize it, or even have the means to — still, it’s uranium.
P2P file sharing, Torrent
TOR was made for anonymous browsing and imagine downloading something using it. The file-sharing process is so simple, only upload your file, copy your file link and share it with anyone on the dark web.
Email encryption involves encrypting, or disguising, the content of email messages to protect potentially sensitive information from being read by anyone other than intended recipients. Email encryption often includes authentication.
Email is a vulnerable medium, especially if the emails are sent over public Wi-Fi networks which are unsecure and hackers who gain unauthorized access to an email account can access attachments, content, and even hijack your entire email account. So, it’s always recommended to use email encryption while sending sensitive information, such as login credentials, bank account numbers or Social Security numbers.
How email encryption works
Encryption is no more than scrambling up the contents of a message so that only those with a key can decrypt it. It simply sorts of like those puzzles we did in school where every letter of the alphabet had to be converted to some other letter of the alphabet to decode the final message. Computers make the scrambling far more complex and impossible for a human to crack by hand. When you encrypt an email, its contents are scrambled, and only the intended receiver can unscramble it with the key.
Public Key for encryption
Email encryption uses something called public-key cryptography. Each person has a pair of keys, the digital codes that are used to decrypt an encrypted message. Your public key is stored on a key server where anyone can find it, along with your name and email address. Conversely, you can find other people’s public keys on keyservers to send them encrypted email.
To encrypt an email, use the recipient’s public key to scramble the message. Due to the technology behind this type of cryptography, the public key cannot be used to decrypt it. The email can then only be decrypted by the recipient’s private key, which is stored somewhere safe and private on his or her computer.
Digitally Signed Emails
Digital Signature is a process that guarantees that the contents of an email have not been modified in transit. When users receive your email, they will see a message that the email has been digitally signed. It means that a one-way hash (encryption) of the message content is added using your public and private key pair.
The client can still read it, but the process creates a “signature” that only the server’s public key can decrypt. The client, using the server’s public key, can then validate the sender as well as the integrity of email contents. Whether it’s an email, an online order or a watermarked photograph on online commerce, if the transmission arrives but the digital signature does not match with the public key in the digital certificate, then the client can find that the message has been altered.
How to send an email digitally signed
Microsoft Outlook 2013, 2016
To Sign an Email Message, simply click the Sign button that now appears on a Compose Message email dialogue under the Options tab.
Mozilla Thunderbird
Select the Security icon appearing in the Write
message window. You can Encrypt or Digitally Sign messages by selecting either
or both options.
Mail sent with a digital signature will show as
digitally signed by the sender to any receiver of that email.
Apple Mail
Open a new message. Two icons will be available, a small lock icon and a digital signature icon. Click the digital signature icon to send a digitally signed email. The recipient will receive the message as a digitally signed email.
Sending Digitally signed emails vs Encrypted Emails
To exchange secure (encrypted) emails with someone, there are some additional steps required. To Encrypt an email Message, you will need to provide your public key to the party you wish to encrypt for, and vice versa.
The recommended way to do this exchange is to send the other party a Signed email to exchange keys.
1. Open a new message to send to the contact with whom
you wish to exchange public keys. Ensure the message is digitally signed (but
not encrypted) and hit send. You will be prompted to Allow for your public key
to be sent upon sending the email. Select Allow.
2. You will need a copy of the recipient’s public key
to exchange Encrypted email. Have them send you a digitally signed email. After
receiving the digitally signed email containing a copy of the other person’s
public key, Outlook will store the public key. Upon opening the email you will
be prompted again. Select Allow to obtain a copy of the public key is sent to
you.
3. You can make sure the recipient’s certificate and
public key have been stored by clicking on Certificates in their contact
profile.
4. Click Save and Close.
Off-the-shelf encrypted email client
There are a lot of email apps out there that claim to offer end-to-end encryption, but many contain security vulnerabilities and other shortcomings. Do your research before choosing an off-the-shelf secure email app. Below is a list of some of the best Off-the-shelf encrypted email clients.
ProtonMail
Tutanota
Hushmail
Countermail
Runbox
Kolab Now
Mailfence
Posteo
StartMail
Mailbox
PreVeil
Zoho Mail
Let us see some of the encrypted email clients in detail.
Tutanota
Tutanota is an encrypted email provider from Germany. They position themselves as a secure alternative to Gmail. According to their website, they are also planning to include a calendar, notes, and cloud storage in their offering – and of course, all of these features will be encrypted too.
Tutanota is one such secure email service, with apps for mobile and a webmail client. It even encrypts your attachments and contact lists. Tutanota is open-source, so it can be audited by third parties to ensure it’s safe. All encryption takes place in the background.
ProtonMail
A mature end-to-end encrypted email service with
excellent mobile apps.
ProtonMail’s servers are locked down under 1,000
meters of granite rock, in a Swiss bunker that can survive a nuclear attack.
And its digital security is about as impressive. It began development by a team
of CERN Large Hadron Collider scientists in the wake of the 2013 Snowden leak
and has since become the #1 most-used secure email service with over five
million users.
ProtonMail is designed with the principle of zero
access and zero-knowledge, which means that the email servers and staff that
work with them have no way of reading or sharing your emails.
Based in Switzerland, ProtonMail data is protected by the Swiss Federal Data Protection Act (DPA) and the Swiss Federal Data Protection Ordinance (DPO), which offers some of the best privacy protection in the world. In the unlikely case, ProtonMail was ordered to hand over user data, it would have to be specifically subpoenaed by the Cantonal Court of Geneva or the Swiss Federal Supreme Court. And, even if user data were seized, it would be impossible to decipher because of ProtonMail’s encryption.
Cryptocurrencies are a new concept in the global economy. They exist only for approximately a few years and they already attracted a lot of attention. Especially since the year 2013, they experience turbulent changes in their exchange rates.
Cryptocurrency payments can be made without personal information linked to the transaction. This offers strong protection against identity theft and almost full anonymity.
The Cryptocurrencies belong to the group of virtual currencies. We can consider cryptocurrency as a digital medium of exchange, based on principles of cryptography allowing the performance of secure, decentralized and distributed economic transactions.
Virtual currencies are based on solving mathematical problems which require enormous computing power.
Cryptocurrencies bring to their user’s freedom of payments. They provide the possibility to send and receive any amount of money quickly anywhere in the world at any time. Users of cryptocurrencies are not limited spatially or in time when realizing their payments, so their users are in full control of their money.
The Birth of Bitcoin
The most famous cryptocurrency and the first to be introduced was Bitcoin in 2009. It was designed by a person or a group of persons hiding under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.
As part of the implementation, Nakamoto also devised the first blockchain database.
Two types of Bitcoin users exist ordinary users and so-called Bitcoin miners.
Ordinary users of Bitcoin use digital wallets similar to electronic banking applications. The wallet is software for management of Bitcoin cash, thus for sending and receiving payments in bitcoins. Bitcoins exist only as information in files in a computer or a mobile device. Access to these files is restricted to the holder of the private key, which is used to secure the money. If the file system in the computer is damaged or the wallet file is inadvertently deleted, then the wallet file is lost and the bitcoins it contains are lost forever (in case that the wallet file was not backed up). Although the public address of the wallet still exists, it can only be accessed by the private key, which was deleted. Unless one breaks the very secure encryption built into the system, then it would not be possible to recover the lost coins and breaking encryption used by the Bitcoin network by a force is virtually impossible promptly.
Bitcoin Mining
The mining is a process of new Bitcoins creation and it is performed by miners. Miners are the second group of Bitcoin users and they are solving artificial mathematical problems by dedicating their computational power to the Bitcoin network. The mining is used to confirm waiting transactions by including them in the blockchain. The blockchain is created every 10 minutes in the case of Bitcoin. So every payment in Bitcoins is confirmed in a time of 10 minutes. It enforces a chronological order in the blockchain, protects the neutrality of the network, and allows different computers to agree on the state of the system. For the transactions to be confirmed, they must be packed in a block that fits very strict cryptographic rules that will be verified by the network. These rules prevent previous blocks from being modified because doing so would invalidate all following blocks.
Mining also represents some kind of a competitive lottery that prevents any individual from easily adding new blocks consecutively in the blockchain. So no individuals can control what is included in the blockchain or replace parts of blockchain to roll back their payments. The creation of blocks is proof of the work system of mining, so the data are costly and time-consuming to create in accord with requirements. Bitcoin uses SHA2-256 cryptographic algorithm as a proof of work mechanism during transaction confirmation.
Researchers indicated that some cryptocurrencies might be manipulated also by pre-mining. In that case, a currency is mined or generated by its founders before mining code is released to the general public. This might be a part of a cryptocurrency’s original design. Similarly, some cryptocurrencies might have hidden launches available to only a few individuals and might have extremely high rewards for the first miners.
Cryptocurrency Revolution
Since the introduction of Bitcoin tens of other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Litecoin, Dash, Dogecoin, Ripple have emerged. The most are based on similar specifications as the Bitcoin, which represents the first fully implemented cryptocurrency protocol. The other most popular cryptocurrency Litecoin uses scrypt algorithm as a proof-of-work and has faster transaction confirmations (2.5 minutes). Most cryptocurrencies gradually introduce new units of currency until reaching a preset maximum cap of the total amount of currency that will ever be created. The maximum cap of cryptocurrency aims to assure the scarcity, similar to the case of precious metals. It also should prevent hyperinflation [6]. On the contrary, some cryptocurrencies might experience hyper deflation as the amount of the currency in circulation will approach its preset finite cap.
Dark web and the Bitcoins
All currently existing cryptocurrencies are pseudonymous, so they provide a very high degree of anonymity. Therefore cryptocurrencies are less prone to be confiscated by law enforcement institutions. These facts make cryptocurrencies very attractive for the black market, terrorist activities. The case of the Silk Road is infamous. It was e-marketplace used for drug dealing (and another black-market trading) and it was accepting payments in cryptocurrencies.
Impossible transactions traceability and no central guarantee of currency are the main reasons for the wide usage of bitcoins on the dark web.
However, since the introduction of cryptocurrencies, they continually gain attention (positive or negative) from the media and public, especially during the fast price rise of Bitcoin and Litecoin during the year of 2013.
Country Regulations
Regulators in several countries have warned against the use of cryptocurrencies. Some countries have taken specific regulatory arrangements to dissuade potential users of cryptocurrency. The willingness to accept it varies in different countries. Authorities in Norway stated that it does not fulfill the requirements of being a currency. In Finland, Bitcoin is not considered a legal currency, because it is by definition in conflict with local legislation. It states that payment instruments must have the issuer responsible for its actions. On the other hand, buying cryptocurrencies is in Finland considered a purchase of goods.
How secure and transparent it is really?
All information concerning the cryptocurrency money supply is readable and available in the blockchain for anybody to verify and use in real-time, so cryptocurrencies are transparent. Furthermore, no individual or organization can control or manipulate the cryptocurrencies protocol because they are cryptographically secured.
Cryptocurrency users can also protect their money by encryption and backing up their wallets. Also, merchants can’t hide any charges as can happen with other payment methods. The cryptocurrency transactions are secure, irreversible. This protects merchants from losses caused by fraud or fraudulent chargebacks. This allows merchants to have lower fees, enlarge markets and decrease administrative costs.
For enhanced privacy, we recommend to use anonymising broswers like Tor.
The Tor project is a non-profit organisation that conducts research and development into online privacy and anonymity. It is designed to stop people including government agencies and corporations learning your location or tracking your browsing habits.
Tor Browser isolates each website you visit so third-party trackers and ads can’t follow you. Any cookies will be automatically cleared upon exiting the browser. Also your browsing history.
Not too many computer users have heard of the terms “proxy” or “proxy server,” or understand what they mean or do. A proxy server is a website/server that acts as a middleman for you to get on the Internet. When you using a proxy server, you’re not contacting a website directly but your information runs through a special computer that passes along your request for you.
Using Tor makes it more difficult to trace Internet activity of the user like visits to Web sites, online posts, instant messages, and other communication forms.
Tor’s intended use is to protect the personal privacy of its users, as well as their freedom and ability to conduct confidential communication by keeping their Internet activities unmonitored
To say in a nutshell, people use proxies because they don’t want anyone to track where they are located. But the truth is, even someone with limited technical skills can “track” your IP address to a general location, such as the city where you live. They cannot exactly pinpoint the address or figure out who you are, but if they got your name or city in an email or somewhere, they could guess where you are.
So what can people do who want more anonymity have? That’s where a Special Browser, Tor comes in.
What is Tor Browser? Does Tor hide your IP?
Tor is a free software program that we can load onto your computer (like a browser) that hides the IP address every time data is sent or requested on the Internet. The process is layered with heavy-duty encryption, which means your data is layered with privacy protection.
Tor will bounce those Internet requests and data through a vast and extensive network of relays (servers) around the world. That data path is never the same because Tor uses up to 5,000 Tor relays to send the data request. Think of it as a huge network of “hidden” servers that will keep your online identity (meaning your IP address) and your location invisible.
By using Tor, websites will no longer be able to track the physical location of your IP address or what you have been looking at online and neither will any law enforcement or government security agencies that may want to monitor someone’s Internet activity meaning. Tor is like a proxy on steroids.
Tor has extreme value because it can work with your website browser, remote log-in applications and even with instant-messaging software.
Who uses Tor? Is it illegal to use the Tor browser?
Tor is used by people all over the world to search and buy products and communicate with others with restricted Internet access, such as what exists in some foreign countries.
Tor goes beyond simple anonymity, it provides access to a world of information that the normal web (Clearnet) does not. Some may consider this to be a good thing, some will think of it a bad thing, but it depends on how the user looks at it.
Tor is used by a variety of people and organizations. But, it’s a fact that many individuals and organizations are up to no good on the Internet, and Tor is their network of choice. They deal in merchandise or information that is illegal and would be blocked by most Internet Service Providers.
So while Tor does provide peace of mind for those who seek the highest level of Internet security and privacy, it also creates a haven for those who want to do online business out of the light of law enforcement.
And that brings up another problem. If you do business on Tor and you run into a problem or dispute or if you’re scammed there might not be anything you can do about it. A recent article cited that a higher percentage of Tor transactions are fraudulent ( compared to ordinary Internet transactions). Russia is working on blocking all incoming Tor traffic for anti-terrorist purposes. Wikipedia, the online public encyclopedia, is working hard to prevent Tor users from accessing their website.
Does Google block Tor?
Google and Yahoo don’t block Tor users outright. But People won’t be able to access dark web sites in the normal browser or even getting the reliable links for dark web sites is a little hideous task.
