As society progressed, cryptocurrencies have advanced. From Bitcoin through the world’s first mining pool to today’s major mining pools, crypto mining has also seen rapid growth. At the same time, the mining model has grown more diversified, from only one model to today’s five mainstream models, covering PPS, PPS+, FPPS, PPLNS, and SOLO. Which one should miners choose to maximize their mining revenue?
Let’s begin with a quick introduction to these modes of settlement.
1. PPS (Pay Per Share)
Before going into any detail, let’s first define the notion of “lucky value”, which refers to the ratio of the received mining yield to the expected yield. In a sense, the calculation of the lucky value is like heads or tails, which is a common game. Though the theoretical probability of both heads and tails is 50%, there might be 60 heads and 40 tails out of 100 tosses. This also applies to a mining pool. When the mining luck of a pool is greater than 100%, the received yield exceeds the expected yield. On the other hand, if it is less than 100%, the received yield falls below the expected yield.
PPS is the distribution model that operates under the assumption that the lucky value equals 100% (i.e. it assumes that the pool could earn the expected yield). What this means is that the pool bears the fluctuation risks of mining output. To be more specific, the pool must pay miners the corresponding mining yield even if no block is mined on a given day. As the pool bears the risks, it charges a certain fee.
PPS is thus also known as the “employee model” among miners — miners provide the hashrate, and the mining pool supplies the fund; the returns are stable, and the risks are borne by the pool. However, the elimination of risks also comes with a price: under PPS, miners will not receive the miner’s fee.
2. PPLNS (Pay Per Last N Shares)
The model refers to the payment of mining yield based on the number of shares miners submitted during a shift. Under PPLNS, the mining yield is closely bound up with the actual number of blocks mined in a pool. When a new block is mined, the pool will first deduct the service fee, and then distribute the remaining block reward and miner’s fee to each miner according to their hashrate share.
3. PPS+ (Pay Per Share+)
Here, “+” means the miner’s fee charged by the mining pool. The model is an improvement of PPS. It adds another item of yield on the basis of PPS — Under PPS+, the miner’s fee charged by the mining pool will be distributed according to miners’ hashrate share.
4. FPPS (Full Pay Per Share)
Compared with PPS, this model introduces a new item of mining yield. Though this new yield is also counted as miner’s fee, FPPS differs from PPS+ in that the yield is distributed according to the average miner’s fee of the entire network on a day, while the added yield in PPS+ is allocated based on the miner’s fee charged by the pool. As the two models could differ in terms of the distribution of the miner’s fee, the mode of settlement, as well as the choice of mining pools, the mining yield may also vary.
5. SOLO
Under this model, miners operate as if they work solo. If a block is mined, they will get all the block rewards after deducting the corresponding service fee. On the other hand, if no block is mined, miners under this model earn zero profit. This approach is more suitable for miners with a high hashrate share. If what you have is just a moderate hashrate share, then this mode of settlement is not for you.
Through the above comparison, we can tell that the five settlement modes have both pros and cons. Stability comes at a price. For example, the miner’s fee might be lower. When choosing a suitable mode of settlement, you should also account for your mining cycle and the specific fees charged by pools. ViaBTC Pool has recently rolled out ViaBTC Ambassador Referral Commissions. During this event, users who invited their friends to mine on ViaBTC could get lifetime referral commissions of up to 20%, which allows miners to share the miner’s fee charged by the platform to the greatest extent.
Link: https://www.viabtc.com/refer
ViaBTC is a world-leading, all-inclusive mining pool that enables the mining of dozens of mainstream cryptos such as BTC and ETH and supports modes including PPS+, PPLNS, and SOLO. ViaBTC encourages all miners to join the platform on a journey to the digital economy.