Either through intervention from the authorities, or due to the administrator's inability to keep the servers online, marketplaces in the Darknet tend to be more unstable than online marketplaces present on the Internet.

When such a Darknet market goes offline, both the vendors and consumers need to migrate to different platforms in order to continue their business. The method through which these alternative platforms attract these vendors and consumers is poorly researched, however, and so is the tracking of movement from one market to another.

This is a project conducted by the security group of the mathematics and computer science department under the supervision of Dr Luca Allodi and authorized by the ethics committee of the TU/e

The goals of this project are as follows:

How do darknet markets compete with one-another in order to attract more users?

1. What different types of competition mechanics do various darknet markets employ
2. What are the characteristics and general behaviour of darknet market users?
3. Which criteria do Darknet market participants employ when deciding which market to join?
4. Have the recent shocks to the darknet market infrastructure had an effect on people’s behaviour?