1. Onion routing and relays
Tor routes traffic through at least three volunteer‑run relays before it reaches a destination. Each relay only knows its immediate neighbours, which makes it extremely hard to link a user’s IP address to the final service they connect to.
For onion services such as darknet markets, the site itself is also hidden behind multiple layers of Tor routing. The connection never leaves the Tor network, which is why addresses associated with TorZon and similar markets only work inside Tor‑capable browsers.
2. What Tor defends against – and what it does not
Tor’s primary goal is to prevent any single network observer from seeing both who you are and what you are doing. It is not designed to stop all malware, browser exploits, phishing campaigns or social engineering on markets like TorZon.
If a user voluntarily gives identifying information to a market, or runs unsafe plug‑ins, Tor cannot undo that. Similarly, Tor does not prevent law‑enforcement from running relays, operating markets or gathering evidence through undercover work.
3. Common mistakes when using Tor for darknet markets
Case reports often show the same mistakes: logging in to real‑name accounts while Tor is open, resizing or modifying the Tor Browser window, installing extra extensions, downloading files and opening them outside of Tor, or copy‑pasting between market profiles and real‑life accounts.
Each of these actions creates extra opportunities for tracking, fingerprinting or simple human error, especially on long‑running markets like TorZon where habits form over time.
4. Tor, bridges and censorship
In some countries, direct access to the Tor network is blocked. Users there may rely on bridges or pluggable transports that disguise Tor traffic. This is relevant for TorZon only in the sense that people must safely reach the Tor network before they can load any darknet market at all.
Official Tor Project documentation remains the most trustworthy source for up‑to‑date advice on censorship circumvention, and should always be preferred over anonymous forum tips.