Choosing a mining pool often comes down to fee percentage at first glance, but the payout method a pool uses can affect your actual earnings just as much as the headline fee, sometimes more. Understanding the differences between PPS, FPPS, and PPLNS — the three most common payout structures — is worth the time before committing hash power to any single pool. PPS, or Pay Per Share, is the simplest model to understand. Under PPS, the pool pays a fixed amount for every valid share a miner submits, regardless of whether the pool actually finds a block during that period....