Could somebody explain to me what's happening in the top section of the PPLNS Stats page? In the open shifts section their is a "shift completed time" column. What's happening in this area. I don't know what it means that the blocks are not final? What is happening to the blocks. Getting confirmed? Can a block be awarded and fail to be confirmed? I would like to have a better understanding of what's going on in this section of the stats.
Shifts are based off a certain number of shares. When enough shares have been submitted to a pool, the current shift completes.
The 10 most recently completed shifts are "open". Any time a block is solved, the reward is split evenly among all the shares contained in the 10 open shifts. That is why the warning at the top states that the number are not final, all shifts in the top table will increase in earnings if a block is solved while they're still in that table.
When a new shift completes, the oldest shift is now closed, meaning it will not receive any additional rewards if a block is solved.
