Blockchain Technology, DApps, and the Dark Web: LEAs Investigation Perspectives

Dark web platform, a portion of deep web, with utmost privacy provided by Tor network poses many challenges to Law enforcement agencies during investigation. As it is part of deep web, only authorized person or person with required credentials are authorized to access the content in the server. However, accessing this dark web platform requires a specialized tools, like tor browsers, tails os, whonix os, etc. This paper explores the roles of different types of dark web markets, decentralized applications and the blockchain technology. With decentralized nature of this platform, it is difficult for investigator to collect the information from intermediary during investigation. Moreover, with cryptocurrencies, the payment node is also anonymous. This paper presents various types of challenges imposed by cryptocurrencies as well as the roles of different cryptocurrencies in dark web markets. Further, different DApps involved in dark web platforms are explored along with their features. The paper concludes with the recommendations for LEAs to understand this dark web platform from the perspective of investigator and also to incorporate few changes in the investigation procedures including collaboration with international agencies, training for investigators and creating public awareness.