I changed PotPool's payout window from 6 hours to the whole round

PotPool is a 0% fee DigiByte mining pool. Its block rewards buy Megapot lottery tickets once a day. I built it, and this week I changed the rule that decides who shares in the winnings.

What was wrong

The old rule counted only the last 6 hours of work before a round closed. A round can run for several days, because it closes when the daily buy at about 16:00 UTC succeeds, and that needs at least 1,000 DGB in the pool.

So a miner could submit work for days, lose their connection 6 hours before the close, and get nothing for any of it. I tried to defend that to myself and couldn't.

The new rule

Every share you submit between a round opening and closing adds to your weight, and each share is weighted by the work it took to find. Your payout is:

round prize × your round weight ÷ total round weight of all eligible miners

Two checks keep idle connections out. To be eligible you need:

• at least one valid share in the 24 hours before the round closes
• at least 0.05% of the total work of all eligible miners

A reboot or a router hiccup no longer wipes out the work you already did. You only need to be back and submitting before the close.

The tradeoff

It's never too late to join. But weight builds up over the whole round, so someone who joins on day three earns less than someone who was there from day one. If you're thinking about it, the best time is before the next round opens, so you get all of it.

Mobile

I also fixed the mobile layout of the FAQ and the My stats page, so they no longer overflow the screen.

The long shot

It's a lottery, and most days win little or nothing. I built it for the long shot, and you can see every round so far on the rounds page.

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Original post: PotPool payouts are now fairer

Announcements and setup help happen in the PotPool Telegram.

Not financial advice.