> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://ample-2.gitbook.io/docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://ample-2.gitbook.io/docs/how-payouts-work/the-draw.md).
# The Draw
Every week, a cycle of yield becomes a cycle of payouts. Five things happen, in a fixed order, and every one of them leaves a public record.
### The pool
All week, every vault's yield accrues to a payout reserve. At cycle end the accrued yield is valued in USD, summed across vaults, and joined by any sponsored top-ups from Ample or campaign partners. That total is the week's pool. It grows with deposits and with rates, and it contains no deposits by construction.
For a sense of scale, a pool of deposits earning an average rate r generates roughly TVL × r / 52 per week. Five million dollars at 6% funds about $5,800 of payouts every single week, before any sponsorships.
### The snapshot
At the cycle boundary, every depositor's final ticket count locks, with average balance, multipliers, boosts, and bonus tickets all settled. The complete list is then sealed into a **merkle root**, a cryptographic fingerprint published before the draw runs. From that point, adding a name, removing one, or adjusting a single ticket count would change the fingerprint and be visible to anyone comparing the two.
### The randomness
Recipients are selected with a **verifiable random function**. Where an ordinary random number generator asks to be believed, a VRF proves itself. It publishes a proof alongside its output, and anyone with the published inputs can confirm the number was generated exactly once, from the sealed list, with no rerolls. The seed derives from the cycle itself, so a favorable one can't be shopped for.
Selection weight is your share of the pool's tickets.
$$P(\text{selected per pick}) = \frac{\text{your tickets}}{\text{total tickets}}$$
Hold 0.2% of the week's tickets and you hold 0.2% of every selection made that week.
### The tiers
The pool splits across four tiers, from one headline payout to a wide base of smaller ones.
The shape is deliberate. A pure jackpot creates one happy person and a crowd of nothing; a flat split recreates the eleven-cents problem the product exists to fix. Ample's split keeps both promises - a Grand Prize big enough to talk about, and enough payouts below it that winning something is a regular event across the pool. One payout per tier per depositor per week.
### The settlement
The recipient list, with amounts and proofs, is committed onchain per vault before a single claim. A claim succeeds only if it matches the posted record, so no payout can be redirected, inflated, or invented afterward, by anyone, including us. Recipients [claim](/docs/how-payouts-work/claiming.md) directly from the contract (via our interface), on the vault's chain or cross-chain.
The sealed list, the randomness proof, the posted results, and the claims are all public. [Security & Risk](/docs/security-and-risk/overview.md) more about it in detail.
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