The oldest and most famous darknet market, Silk Road, showed the world the concept of how cryptocurrency can be used in real-world application.
As a result, it gave rise to the development of other hidden markets as well, as it also caught the attention of blockchain developers.
Among the most well known cryptocurrency developers today is Charlie Lee, the creator of Litecoin.
Lee, a computer scientist and currently an engineer at Coinbase, recently revealed in a podcast the story of how he first got to learn about virtual money.
The source of this introduction was through an article he read about the notorious Silk Road marketplace.
Even though 10 years have elapsed since the launch of Bitcoin, Lee feels as if it is just the other day that the era began because so much has happened in such a short time.
Not only that, he sees that when it comes to virtual currency, we are just beginning to see its potential. For illustration purposes, we can look at an onion.
To Lee, it is as if we are still peeling the outer layers and time goes by, we keep on peeling more layers and in the process realizing that we can do much more with this new form of innovation.
Speaking on the podcast Unconfirmed: Insights and Analysis From the Top Minds in Crypto, Lee spoke with show host Laura Shin about how he first got to learn about Bitcoin through an article about the famous Silk Road market.
After going through the piece, the whole concept of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency caught his attention because to him, this was the future of digital money.
In his view, Lee wonders why it took so much time for the concept of Bitcoin to come to fruition.
Even though he did not give the number of years of the "supposed" delay, he is categorically clear that cryptocurrency will have the potential to replace fiat currency and that sooner or later everyone will end up adopting this new form of money.
At this moment, in an effort to bring to life the full potential of cryptocurrency, there have been significant strides in the sector, and others continue to unfold with time.
Among them, the Litecoin founder notes that there has been a tremendous increase in the price of Bitcoin over the last few years after its adoption.
Even though the value of the asset is highly volatile, there are those who have won and lost because of the fluctuation rates.
For instance, in 2011, the price of the commodity was $30; and just late last year, it hit a record high of $20,000.
Even though at press time the currency's value has dipped below $5,000 in a major downturn starting last week, it is expected to rise again in the coming months and years.
Litecoin on the Darknet
Lee's creation as of now has grown to compete with the likes of Bitcoin.
Despite the fact that it was built as a complement, it has risen to contend against it, and today, Litecoin is one of the most adopted cryptocurrencies in darknet markets.
Indeed, from just learning about Bitcoin's use on Silk Road, Lee has successfully managed to develop his version which has gained popularity in the dark web.
Perhaps, if Silk Road were still up and running today, it would have already integrated Litecoin as a mode of payment.
Why the Dark Web Is Key to the Growth of Cryptocurrency
In our analysis of how the dark web continues to contribute to the growth of virtual currencies, we note that a majority of the top cryptocurrencies have already been integrated into hidden markets.
Just to mention them, we have Bitcoin as usual, Bitcoin Cash, Monero, Litecoin and Zcash-which are already being used in Dream Market, Wall Street, Empire, Tochka, among many others.
The top markets have been at the forefront in championing for the use of cryptocurrencies as a mode of payment, and the whole idea is now being applied in the regulated industries such as ecommerce platforms.
Other markets like Tochka have gone a step further and developed their own cryptocurrency, named the Tochka Coin.
As things stand, it is only a matter of time before we have more individuals entering the scene of blockchain development to create better versions of cryptocurrencies which might also get integrated into darknet websites and forums.
But of course, not all of them will see light, as the level of competition is presently very intense.
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