{
    "meta": {
        "title": "Mining Pool Payout Schemes",
        "description": "Machine-readable comparison of 8 Bitcoin mining-pool payout schemes (PPS, FPPS, PPLNS, SOLO, TIDES and more): payout variance, transaction-fee sharing, who bears the risk, and who each suits.",
        "generated": "2026-06-20T03:55:17+00:00",
        "version": "1.0",
        "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
        "license_name": "CC BY 4.0",
        "source": "https://d-central.tech/mining-pool-payout-schemes/",
        "record_count": 8,
        "disclaimer": "Definitions are the de-facto industry conventions; an individual pool's exact implementation and fee can vary. Verify with your pool."
    },
    "rows": [
        {
            "scheme": "PPS",
            "name": "Pay Per Share",
            "variance": "Low",
            "tx_fees": "No (subsidy only)",
            "risk_bearer": "Pool",
            "summary": "A fixed payment for every valid share at the pool's set rate, paid whether or not the pool finds a block. The pool absorbs all luck and orphan risk, so it usually charges a higher fee for that certainty.",
            "best_for": "Steady, predictable income; operations that cannot absorb payout variance."
        },
        {
            "scheme": "FPPS",
            "name": "Full Pay Per Share",
            "variance": "Low",
            "tx_fees": "Yes",
            "risk_bearer": "Pool",
            "summary": "PPS for the block subsidy PLUS a proportional share of the network's average transaction-fee reward. The pool still absorbs variance. The de-facto standard for most large pools today.",
            "best_for": "Steady income that also captures transaction-fee revenue."
        },
        {
            "scheme": "PPS+",
            "name": "Pay Per Share Plus",
            "variance": "Low",
            "tx_fees": "Yes (PPLNS-style)",
            "risk_bearer": "Pool (subsidy)",
            "summary": "A hybrid: PPS for the block subsidy and PPLNS-style sharing for the transaction fees. Steady subsidy income with contribution-based fee distribution.",
            "best_for": "A steady subsidy with fairer, contribution-weighted fee sharing."
        },
        {
            "scheme": "PPLNS",
            "name": "Pay Per Last N Shares",
            "variance": "Medium",
            "tx_fees": "Yes",
            "risk_bearer": "Miner (shared)",
            "summary": "Pays out from the actual block reward, split across the shares submitted in the last N-shares window when a block is found. Miner income fluctuates with the pool's luck; it rewards loyalty and penalises pool-hopping, and usually carries no risk premium (lower effective fee).",
            "best_for": "Long-term, loyal miners willing to ride short-term variance for lower fees."
        },
        {
            "scheme": "PROP",
            "name": "Proportional",
            "variance": "Medium",
            "tx_fees": "Yes",
            "risk_bearer": "Miner (shared)",
            "summary": "The whole block reward is split proportionally to each miner's shares in the round. Simple, but vulnerable to pool-hopping; largely superseded by PPLNS.",
            "best_for": "Mostly historical interest; superseded by PPLNS in practice."
        },
        {
            "scheme": "SCORE",
            "name": "Score-based (time-weighted)",
            "variance": "Medium",
            "tx_fees": "Yes",
            "risk_bearer": "Miner (shared)",
            "summary": "Shares are weighted by recency — recent shares count more than older ones (the original Slush scheme). Designed to discourage pool-hopping.",
            "best_for": "Miners who value hopping resistance and recency-weighted rewards."
        },
        {
            "scheme": "SOLO",
            "name": "Solo (via a pool)",
            "variance": "Very high",
            "tx_fees": "Yes (full block)",
            "risk_bearer": "Miner (you)",
            "summary": "You mine through the pool's infrastructure but keep the FULL block reward (minus a small fee) only if YOUR work finds the block. Extreme variance — effectively a lottery — with near-zero income between blocks.",
            "best_for": "Lottery-style mining, or larger miners who want to find (and keep) their own blocks."
        },
        {
            "scheme": "TIDES",
            "name": "TIDES (OCEAN)",
            "variance": "Medium",
            "tx_fees": "Yes",
            "risk_bearer": "Miner (shared)",
            "summary": "A transparent, share-window scheme (a PPLNS-style method with a defined share window) that pays non-custodially. Designed around transparency and miner sovereignty.",
            "best_for": "Decentralisation-minded miners who value transparent, non-custodial payouts."
        }
    ]
}