Is this how Buffer sites work?

Is my understanding of how buffer sites work correct? I have assumed that each link chain only passes on 50% of the link juice.

Is google able to detect that all the authority to the money site is originating from the same source? Of course normally the money site will have a wide range of back links from many sources if done correctly eg web profiles, citations, forums, social media, pbns etc.

Which version is stronger I wonder? If there's one, probably not to that extent.

The thing about buffer sites is that they can have over purposes:
- Easy to cut off if you rankings take a nose dive (as opposed to having to delete/revoke hundreds of backlinks)
- They're great to target low-competition/long-tail keywords and generate extra traffic to your money site

Just to name two advantages I can think of straight away. There are probably others.

Your outbound backlinks to 3rd party sites are also vital.
So you know you need to link to other sites than yourself to avoid foot-printing - but it's also the choice of sites. In the past when I've done similar things to this I've picked WIKI and similar massive authority sites exclusively to send out my "dummy" links. However I've noticed that working less effectively in the past 18 months - so now I pick other similar sized sites.

My technique here is to avoid anything in my keyword vertical and go for something in the market horizontal - after all I don't want to be promoting by direct competitors with my links.
It's a little bit trickier but works really well.

perfectly.
just remember you just cracked the g-code yourself.