Hey guys an gals.... Just a quick post to explain the significance of the blocks page...
Extremely useful information, thanks for this. I had assumed that was what the figures represented, but did not know for certain.
This sort of information is extremely useful to new miners. Also important not to look at individual blocks, but take an average overall. At least then you can see that you are getting a good, fair and stable return for your hash power.
Next up, what the heck does PPLNS and other ways of splitting up the shares/blocks mean?
Oh boy.... here we go....
PPS You get Paid Per Share. As you can see from the pools page, at present the estimated shares per round are 8184. so we simply take the block reward (to keep it simple we'll pretend the reward happens to 8184) and divide it by the number of shares to give a per share value.
Block size 8184/expected shares per block (8184) = 1 mrc per share.
Then every share you submit you get 1mrc regardless of whether a block is found or not. The risk is ALLon the pool op. When that number is green, the pool wins, red and the miners win. VERY risky for OPs and usually high fees (My pps pool also paid orphans!)
PPLNSDifficult to describe in an easy to understand mannner but the block is dived amongst all miners but with a delay of x shares. The idea is that pool hoppers cant wait for a new round and then swing all their rigs in hoping to get a lucky round in. PPLNS pools have a ramp up period of say 25000 shares... you wont get fully paid untill you have submitted 25000 shares. You'll see dribs and drabs but you wont get you full reward until you pass the 25000 mark. N00b miners usually scream scammer at this point.
YOU DO GET PAID FOR EVERYTHING. Once you stop mining on a PPLNS pool, you payouts will continue until your 25000 buffer is used up. It basically skews the rounds. (disclaimer: not 100% technically accurate but for the sake of simplicity.....)
PROPvery simply, every block that gets found get's divided amongst the miners based on the percentage of shares they submitted that round. It's what we run so you guys get paid quickly and don't have to wait for ramp-ups. At the round end, the shares are reset to 0 and you all start again. This is the best kind of pool to mine on (second to PPS but they are rare nowadays) if you switch pools/coins frequently.
They are the 3 main ones - the others are all tweaks based on the same. Coinotron for instance run RBPPS which is PPS but only pays at the end of the round and doesn't pay orphans. You still get the same amount as straight PPS but you have to wait a little.
Helpful?