<p>By definition, NiPoPoWs are lightweight proofs for Proof-of-Work blockchains. In a nutshell, they operate by taking advantage of the fact that every so often, a block of highly unusual likelihood is mined. Here’s a quick summary:</p>
<p>In PoW, a miner is elected Block leader when they win a lottery by producing a block hash with a certain difficulty level. Let’s say (for arguments sake) the chances of producing such a block are 1/100. Every so often, a miner will produce a block hash with an unusually high unlikelihood (I.e. 1/10,000 chance). NiPoPoWs take advantage of this “super-unlikelihood” by recognizing these super blocks are produced at a regular cadence. So instead of validating the entire blockchain, one only needs to validate the superblocks, which may be a much smaller subset of the rest of the blocks.</p>
<p>Another way to think about this: lets say there is an engine running and you know that a every 1000 engine cycles, the piston makes an unusual noise. If I ask you to count how long 5000 cycles takes, instead of counting 5000 engine cycles, you can just count 5 of the “unusual” cycles.</p>
<p><a href="https://nipopows.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Here’s</a> a more beginner friendly article on the topic.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-03-18T10:37:33.983Z
This is very surprising answer. Only in that in that it's so unexpected.  Thank you!
Dale Botha
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-03-18T10:45:56.323Z
This is an amazing explanation of what NIPoPoWs is.  But I guess by superficial extrapolation it does answer my question ie. This sounds like a PoW version of PoS where stake pool with a small amount of delegation gets to create the next block.  Is this resemblance superficial or could it be applied to PoS too?
Dale Botha
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-03-13T20:26:31.667Z
2022-03-13T20:26:31.667Z
zhekson
<p>Here the link to the <a href="https://eprint.iacr.org/2017/963.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">NIPoPoWs paper</a></p>
<p>The jargon and complexity of the topic is too difficult for me to parse.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-03-15T03:18:03.477Z
Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking.
Community
<consensus>
Do NIPoPoWs (Non-Interactive Proofs of Proof-of-Work) only apply to PoW blockchains or can it be applied universally to any consensus algorithm?
# Do NIPoPoWs (Non-Interactive Proofs of Proof-of-Work) only apply to PoW blockchains or can it be applied universally to any consensus algorithm?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-03-12)

Here the link to the [NIPoPoWs paper](https://eprint.iacr.org/2017/963.pdf)

The jargon and complexity of the topic is too difficult for me to parse.

**Tags:** consensus
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2022-03-13. Score: 3

By definition, NiPoPoWs are lightweight proofs for Proof-of-Work blockchains. In a nutshell, they operate by taking advantage of the fact that every so often, a block of highly unusual likelihood is mined. Here’s a quick summary:

In PoW, a miner is elected Block leader when they win a lottery by producing a block hash with a certain difficulty level. Let’s say (for arguments sake) the chances of producing such a block are 1/100. Every so often, a miner will produce a block hash with an unusually high unlikelihood (I.e. 1/10,000 chance). NiPoPoWs take advantage of this “super-unlikelihood” by recognizing these super blocks are produced at a regular cadence. So instead of validating the entire blockchain, one only needs to validate the superblocks, which may be a much smaller subset of the rest of the blocks.

Another way to think about this: lets say there is an engine running and you know that a every 1000 engine cycles, the piston makes an unusual noise. If I ask you to count how long 5000 cycles takes, instead of counting 5000 engine cycles, you can just count 5 of the “unusual” cycles.

[Here’s](https://nipopows.com/) a more beginner friendly article on the topic.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: This is very surprising answer. Only in that in that it's so unexpected.  Thank you!  
> **username_0**: This is an amazing explanation of what NIPoPoWs is.  But I guess by superficial extrapolation it does answer my question ie. This sounds like a PoW version of PoS where stake pool with a small amount of delegation gets to create the next block.  Is this resemblance superficial or could it be applied to PoS too?  

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