What Is “Pool Hopping” and How Do PPLNS Schemes Mitigate It?

Pool hopping is the practice where miners quickly switch between pools to maximize short-term profit, typically by joining a pool right after it finds a block and leaving before the next block is found if the current pool's luck seems low. Pay-Per-Last-N-Shares (PPLNS) mitigates this by calculating a miner's payout based on the shares submitted over a large, rolling window of the last 'N' shares.

This means a miner must contribute consistent work over time to receive a full payout, disincentivizing quick exits.