1) The web we know...19 terabytes of info....the deep web...7,500 terabytes of info.
It is content not indexed by search engines, including illegal commerce sites like Silk Road,
password protected sites, databases and old websites.
2) Topics of interest:
fake passports, hit men, drugs, explosives, child porn, stolen identities, counterfeit currency, guns, etc.
As to these two issues. Yeah it gets a bad rep for being just a blackmarket thing but you know how you always hear once something goes on the internet it's there forever, at least to someone who knows how to search for that stuff. THere's actually pretty practical uses. Say Chicago Tribune did an article a few years ago they took offline, you could find it on the deep web so for researching things where there's dead links and stuff like that you can still find info which is not online anymore. Given #2 above are we still interested in selling an old lamp there ?
Granted, there's really not a need for the secrecy and anonymity selling an old lamp but heck coffee shops, pizza places and other brick and mortar stores are accepting bitcoins as are websites selling normal non illegal products like alpaca socks for example. The nice thing for sellers is there's no chargebacks, no paypal disputes, no credit card disputes, once you have your payment the buyer cant take it back. Its also an instantaneous transtion no waiting for funds to clear. Bitcoins? A whole other story. They are non-traceable and only have value for buying other things with bitcoins, though I suspect there is a place on the deep web where you can trade bitcoins for real cash...at a discount...giving money laundering a new role in the 21st century. A bitcoin's value fluctuates....currently in the $200 plus range.
You don't even need to go to the deepweb to change bitcoins for cash. It's a legit service provided by sites like coinbase. You can also place ads on Craigslist and sell them on there. Meet in person, get cash and then send the bitcoins to that persons wallet. There's also sites like localbitcoins where you can convert your bitcoins back into cash.
There really isn't any regulation in place yet but the government loves to tax and regulate everything and they are concerned about money laundering so they are looking into it now. The thing is bitcoin was designed so there's no central control and so it cannot be regulated so we'll see how things play out.
https://coinbase.com/?utm_campaign=user-referralSite above is probably the most common way to turn money into bitcoins and bitcoins back into money.
Here's also a quick article if anyone is interestd basically breaking down bitcoins and how they work, how they are held, and how to buythem for beginners.
http://rulesforrebels.blogspot.com/2013/12/bitcoins-for-absolute-beginners-how-to.html