Guide
What Tor Actually Does, in Plain Language
Tor routes traffic through three relays: entry, middle, and exit. Each layer encrypts the data slightly differently, creating a path where no single point sees both your origin and your destination. Your IP address stays hidden from the website you visit, and the website stays hidden from your internet provider.
Where the encryption stops
Encryption does not extend to the final leg. The exit relay sees unencrypted traffic when it connects to a standard website, which means anyone monitoring that node can read plain HTTP content. For services hosted on .onion domains, both sides exist inside the Tor network. Neither party knows the other's physical IP address. The seller operates from somewhere behind their own relay chain, and you connect through yours. No third party maps the connection between them. That dual anonymity is what distinguishes .onion sites from regular web addresses accessed through a simple proxy.
Speed is the real constraint
Theoretical throughput claims reach tens of megabits per second. Actual performance typically hovers between half a megabit and five megabits, depending on congestion and relay health. Streaming video or loading heavy graphics takes longer than expected. Misconfigured browsers can leak DNS requests, which undermines anonymity even when Tor handles the rest correctly.
What this means for a market
Darknet marketplaces function adequately within default settings. You do not need advanced tuning to browse listings or place orders. The network handles standard connections securely enough for transaction purposes. Adjustments matter mainly if you plan to download large files or maintain multiple concurrent sessions. Start with defaults, observe how pages load, and adjust your timeout expectations rather than assuming slowness indicates a malfunction.
Related reading
Looking for the current onion addresses? All mirrors are listed here. This page is informational; the market itself only runs on Tor.