Understand
Withdrawal waves
Address, amount, time: the three links between a deposit and a payout, closed one by one.
A pool hides which deposit a payout came from, but only if nothing else gives it away. On a public chain three things can: the address the money goes to, the amount, and the time it leaves. Walk through them below; the diagram shows what an observer can still match at each step.
3
LINKS
Three things can tie a payout to a deposit
On a public chain anyone can compare the address, the amount and the time of what went in and what came out. Right now all three match: the three red threads. Close them one by one.
The schedule
Payouts queue up and leave together in waves, on a fixed schedule the server publishes. Each wave is one batch: many payouts, same moment, no order that says who asked first. The Waves page shows the wave forming, the clock, and the waves already gone.
Fast payouts
Fast skips the wave and pays out right away. The address and the amount can still be chosen well, but the timing then matches your deposit closely. Use it when speed matters more than the last link.
Round amounts
The Shield page suggests whole, common amounts for a reason: a payout of 1 SOL looks like every other 1 SOL payout. One of 1.2345 SOL points straight at a deposit of 1.2345 SOL.