How Does the ‘N’ Value in PPLNS Affect the Pool’s Payout Stability?

In Pay-Per-Last-N-Shares (PPLNS), 'N' represents the number of shares in the rolling window used to calculate a miner's proportional reward. A larger 'N' means the payout is based on a longer history of submitted shares.

This increases payout stability for the miner by smoothing out short-term luck fluctuations, making the pool's effective payout closer to the long-term expected value. However, a larger 'N' also means a new miner has to wait longer to receive their full proportional payout.