How do payouts work on P2Pool?

On Monero’s P2Pool, you receive XMR directly from a mined block when your recent work qualifies for a reward. There is no pool-held balance to withdraw: your payout goes straight to your wallet address, but it must mature before you can spend it.

How your work earns a payout

P2Pool is a decentralized mining pool. You combine your mining work with other miners, but no central operator holds everyone’s earnings.

Your miner submits shares, which are proofs that it has done useful mining work. P2Pool records qualifying shares on a sidechain, a separate record that tracks each miner’s contribution.

Payouts use PPLNS, short for “Pay Per Last N Shares.” In everyday terms:

• You earn a place in a rolling window by finding qualifying P2Pool shares.
• When your P2Pool sidechain finds a Monero block, it checks the shares in that window.
• The block reward is divided among the eligible wallet addresses according to their share of the recorded work.

The window is roughly six hours under typical conditions. Your reward depends on qualifying shares, not simply how long your miner has been running.

Why payouts arrive unevenly

Finding shares and finding Monero blocks both involve luck. Your mining speed affects your chances, but it does not create a fixed payment schedule.

You might find a share and receive several payouts while it remains in the window. You might also find a share that expires before your sidechain finds another Monero block, earning nothing from that share.

This explains two things that can otherwise seem confusing:

• You can keep receiving payouts after stopping, while your earlier shares remain eligible.
• You can mine continuously without receiving a payout, especially if your mining speed is low.

P2Pool’s main and mini sidechains track contributions separately. Mini uses a lower share difficulty, meaning less work is needed on average to find a qualifying share. That can suit smaller miners, although mini may find Monero blocks less frequently. It does not guarantee higher earnings.

Where the payment goes

Your reward is included directly in the Monero block’s mining payment. P2Pool does not build up a custodial balance—money held for you by a pool operator—and then send it later.

That means:

• There is no withdrawal request.
• There is no operator-set balance threshold you must reach before a withdrawal.
• P2Pool itself charges no pool fee.
• There is no separate withdrawal transaction fee deducted by P2Pool.

Small payouts are possible, but you still need an eligible share and a successful Monero block. “No withdrawal threshold” does not mean every bit of mining work produces an immediate payment.

When you can spend it

P2Pool payouts are newly mined coins, so they are locked for 60 blocks, or roughly two hours at Monero’s average two-minute block time.

Your synchronized wallet may show a payout before it becomes spendable. This is different from an ordinary incoming transfer, which normally needs 10 confirmations.

Never give a pool or payout-checking service your wallet’s seed phrase or private spend key. Neither is needed to pay you.

The bottom line

P2Pool pays you directly when your qualifying shares are still in the payout window and your sidechain finds a Monero block. Expect irregular payments, no manual withdrawals, and a roughly two-hour maturity wait before spending each reward.