I am seeing a lot of new users here asking/talking about the 5 times Network Difficulty.
I am going to try to explain and simplify it:
Let us pretend that the current difficulty is 1000.
Then that means we should expect that 1 in every 1000 shares submitted would solve a block.
If we solve a block on the 1000 share, then we would have solved it at 100%
With a PPLNS structured payout each block found gets payed out based on the LNS (Last N Shares) in this case the N = 5. So in our example the LNS = 5 x 1000 = 5000 shares.
If you just started with the pool and we found a block on the 1000th share (100%) and you had submitted 10 shares, you would not receive payout of 10/1000 = 1% of the block because the payout takes into account the LNS, so your payout would be 10/5000 = 0.2%
Now lets say we find another block on the 1000th share and you submitted another 10 shares, again you won't get the 1% but instead you will get 20/5000 = 0.4% so you get paid for the previous shares submitted as well.
Now lets get wild and say we just found our 5th block on the 1000th share (5 in a row at 100%) and you submitted 10 shares each block, your total would be 50 and total shares would be 5000 so 50/5000 = 1% now you have reach the full "ramp up" and are getting full payout.
This is what ends up working out great if we find blocks more often than 100%, you have the potential of getting your shares paid more times.
Example continued: Lets say you have been mining with us for a long time (your fully "ramped up") and we find 4 blocks at 100% and 2 at 50%, that gives us the total 5Nd of 5000 shares, but we found 6 blocks. You have submitted your usually 50 shares during that time so you are at 50/5000 = 1%, but now so now you are getting 1% of 6 blocks instead of 1% of 5, but you have not submitted any more shares.
This is what we are talking about with the 5Nd, you won't be getting full payout until you have been mining here for the duration of the 5Nd. You will still get paid for all shares submitted and those shares are not getting paid any less, and if the pool is lucky you get paid more.
I know a lot of us like to mention this because people tend to join CKPool then they see their first payout and think "Wow this pool pays awful, I'm leaving", but then when they leave they should still see payments coming in and in the end they probably got just as much as they would have somewhere else, and if the pool was on a luck streak even more.
Hopefully that helps, anyone please feel free to correct me on anything or fill in with something I missed.
I think this may have been my longest post ever.
edit: I just looked at the "Shifts" page on Kano.is and we are currently sitting at getting paid 8 times for some shares! Everyone keep eating chicken!
