Why is the dark web so slow?

When dark web is mentioned, many people probably think that dark web sites are automatically very slow.    Although the dark web does not have good connection speed compared to normal websites, it is actually faster than most people would expect.

Websites on dark net usually use open-source software and cryptography to make sure everything is encrypted and secure before users can enter darknet markets or forums (e.g: like https://darkwebmarket.net/).  Encryption makes connections between your computer/device and dark net servers slower because of increased data packets traveling over the network, but it doesn't affect user experience when they are browsing darknet sites via Tor browser because Tor encrypt user's traffic with multiple layers of encryption.  It's like giving your dark web site a bunch of keys to increase security, but without all the keys it is not possible to open the door to dark net, so Tor makes darknet sites slower while also making them more secure...so darknet sites are generally slower than normal websites, but users generally do not notice unless they try to download something large.

All dark websites encrypt their connection between themselves and user device/computer in order to stay safe - this means that data packages need multiple steps to get from one location (server) to another (client).    Normal people would only see the slow speed because there isn't one computer doing all the work: dark web sites have hundreds if not thousands of computers powering them and all dark web sites are encrypted so that they can't be traced.  This makes darknet websites hard to trace, which is the point of darknet in the first place because darknets are not meant for everyone to use - darknets are for people who want anonymity online.

There are two types of darknet access: Tor and I2P. Both Tor and I2P make dark websites slow, but this doesn't matter because even though dark net is slow you probably wouldn't notice if you were using it properly.    Dark nets are slower than normal nets, but take measures to encrypt data packets to protect users' privacy by making connections between user device/computer and servers more complicated (i.e.: having more steps).