PPS, PROP, PPLNS: how pools pay
The share ledger says who did what; the payout scheme says who gets paid when, and who carries the luck. The three classic schemes with a worked example, plus the two fine-print lines that decide your real cash flow.
The three schemes
| Scheme | How it pays | Your variance | Typical fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| PPS — pay per share | a fixed price for every share, block or no block | lowest — the pool absorbs the luck | highest; the pool is insuring you |
| PROP — proportional | each found block is split by your share of that round's shares | full round variance | low |
| PPLNS — pay per last N shares | a found block is split by who mined the last N shares | reduced vs PROP; the window shifts | low — the modern default |
The differences are all about *who carries the randomness*. In PROP you carry it fully — no block, no pay, and slow rounds pay the same as fast ones. In PPS the pool carries it — you're paid per ticket regardless of jackpots, so the pool charges an insurance premium (the fee gap). PPLNS is the middle: real blocks pay real dividends, but the sliding last-N window averages across rounds and quietly punishes stop-start mining (your shares age out of the window before a block lands).
Worked example
A block pays 100 coins. You contribute a steady 10% of pool hashrate, and the pool runs PPLNS over the last hour of shares:
- Lucky hour — pool found 3 blocks: you earn ~30 coins.
- Unlucky hour — zero blocks: you earn 0, and your shares roll forward in the window.
- Same setup under PPS at a fair price: ~10 coins per hour, every hour, whatever the pool's luck — smoothness bought with a higher fee.
- Same setup under PROP: 10% of each block, whenever blocks come — same expected value, lumpier timing than PPLNS and none of its anti-hop smoothing.
The fine print that actually moves your money
- Minimum payout — earnings accumulate until crossing a threshold (commonly 0.01–1.0 coins, sometimes much more) before the pool sends anything. A high threshold on a slow coin strands your balance for weeks while you trust the operator's solvency.
- Payout timing — daily at a fixed hour vs every N hours vs manual. More frequent = smaller stacks of trust, slightly more transaction overhead.
- Window length (PPLNS) — a 4-hour window behaves differently from a 24-hour one for intermittent miners: if you mine 2 hours a day, a long window mostly pays other people.
See it live on pow.family
Pool entries on project pages state each pool's scheme, fee and minimum payout next to its live stats — the three contractual numbers this lesson says to compare first.