Pool status and monitoring pages can be found at https://p2pool.io/, https://p2pool.io/mini/ and https://p2pool.observer/, https://mini.p2pool.observer/
These are 3rd-party pages. If they are down, it doesn't mean there is a problem with P2Pool itself - it keeps mining always thanks to its decentralized nature.
Here's the comparison table of the different ways of mining. While pool mining is the easiest to setup, it centralizes Monero network and pool admin gets full power over your hashrate and your unpaid funds. Solo mining is 100% independent and the best for the network. P2Pool mining has all the advantages of solo mining, but also makes regular payouts possible.
|Centralized pool|Regular|0-3%|0.001-0.01 XMR|Yes|Less stable due to pool server outages|Pool admin controls your mined funds, what you mine and can execute network attacks|Only miner software is required
|Solo|Rare|0%|0.6 XMR or more|No|As stable as your Monero node|100% under your control|Monero node + optional miner
* Decentralized: no central server that can be shutdown/blocked. P2Pool uses a separate blockchain to merge mine with Monero. Pool admin can't go rogue or be pressured to do an attack on the network because there is no pool admin!
* Permissionless: there is no one to decide who can mine on the pool and who can't.
* Highly reliable configurations are supported (multiple P2Pool nodes mining to the same wallet, each P2Pool node can use multiple Monero nodes and switch on the fly if an issue is detected)
First you need to find a pool share. This share will stay in [PPLNS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mining_pool#Pay-per-last-N-shares) window for up to 2160 pool blocks (6 hours, auto adjustable to balance payout sizes and frequency). The moment P2Pool finds a Monero block and you have at least 1 pool share in PPLNS window, you'll get a payout! Monero block reward is split between all miner wallets in PPLNS window. Each miner gets a part of block reward proportional to the total difficulty of his/her shares in PPLNS window.
**NOTE** If P2Pool doesn't have enough hashrate to find Monero blocks faster than every 6 hours on average (~15 MH/s), **not all your pool shares will result in a payout**. Even if pool hashrate is higher, bad luck can sometimes result in a share going through PPLNS window without a payout. But in the long run it will be compensated by other shares receiving multiple payouts - your payouts will average out to what you'd get with regular pool mining.
- In order to mine on P2Pool, a synced Monero node using monerod v0.18.0.0 or newer is required. If you don't currently have one, you can download the official Monero binaries, start `monerod` on your PC and wait until it's fully synced. Advanced Monero node setup instructions are [here](https://sethforprivacy.com/guides/run-a-monero-node-advanced/).
- It is highly recommended that you create a separate restricted user account (in your OS) for mining. While P2Pool has been battle-tested for a long time now, any software may have unknown bugs/vulnerabilities.
- You have to use a primary wallet address (the one starting with `4`) for mining. Subaddresses and integrated addresses are not supported, just like with monerod solo mining.
- You can add the `--mini` parameter to your P2Pool command to connect to the **p2pool-mini** sidechain. Note that it will also change the default p2p port from 37889 to 37888.
- Check that ports 18080 (Monero p2p port) and 37889/37888 (P2Pool/P2Pool mini p2p port) are open in your firewall to ensure better connectivity. If you're mining from a computer behind NAT (like a router) you could consider forwarding the ports to your local machine.
- You can connect multiple miners to the same P2Pool node. The more the better!
- The steps below assume that you run everything on the same machine. If it's not the case, change `127.0.0.1` to appropriate IP addresses for your setup.
- [Gupax](https://github.com/hinto-janai/gupax) project aims to provide an easy to use cross-platform GUI to configure and run P2Pool & [XMRig](https://github.com/xmrig/xmrig).
Merge mining will be available in P2Pool after the fork on October 12th, 2024. Version 4.0 or newer is required to use it.
- Blockchains that will support [Merge mining RPC API](https://github.com/SChernykh/p2pool/blob/master/docs/MERGE_MINING.MD#proposed-rpc-api)
- [Townforge](https://townforge.net/) supports it in their [tmp-mm branch](https://git.townforge.net/townforge/townforge/src/branch/tmp-mm) (not released yet)
- [DarkFi](https://dark.fi/) is going to support it, but it's [not ready yet](https://github.com/darkrenaissance/darkfi/issues/244)
Merge mining is available for testing in Tari's [v1.0.0-pre.14 release](https://github.com/tari-project/tari/releases/tag/v1.0.0-pre.14) (Esmeralda testnet).
4. Check that ports 18080 (Monero p2p port) and 37889/37888 (P2Pool/P2Pool mini p2p port) are open in your local firewall to ensure better connectivity.
5. Start `monerod` with the following command/options:
`--out-peers 32 --in-peers 64` is needed to (1) have many connections to other nodes and (2) limit incoming connection count because it can grow uncontrollably and cause problems when it goes above 1000 (open files limit in Linux). If your network connection's **upload** bandwidth is less than **10 Mbit**, use `--out-peers 8 --in-peers 16` instead.
`--add-priority-node=p2pmd.xmrvsbeast.com:18080 --add-priority-node=nodes.hashvault.pro:18080` is needed to have guaranteed good working nodes in your connected peers.
7. Wait until the initial P2Pool sync is finished (shouldn't take more than 5-10 minutes).
8. Start XMRig with the following command/options:
```
./xmrig -o 127.0.0.1:3333
```
- Note that you don't need to specify your wallet address for XMRig. **Wallet addresses set in XMRig config will be ignored!**
- To set a custom fixed difficulty for your miner (for example, 10000), instead start XMRig with the following options:
```
./xmrig -u x+10000 -o 127.0.0.1:3333
```
9. XMRig should connect and start mining!
**Additional Information:**
- For a more in-depth beginner friendly walk-through with the option of using Docker, please see SethForPrivacy's guide at: https://sethforprivacy.com/guides/run-a-p2pool-node/
- You can check the p2pool.log for any warnings or errors using the following command:
```
grep -E 'WARNING|ERROR' p2pool.log
```
- P2Pool has verbose logging by default, you can reduce it by using "loglevel N" command where N is between 0 and 6. Default loglevel is 3.
- You can use `logrotate` with a config like this to control logfile growth:
**Note:** *Windows SmartScreen may block incoming connections by files that are "Downloaded from the Internet". You can allow 'p2pool.exe' and 'monerod.exe' by double-clicking them, clicking "More Info", then click "Run Anyway" and then closing them immediately so you can run them from the command line. Advanced users can use the PowerShell cmdlet `Unblock-File` to remove this flag.*
`--out-peers 32 --in-peers 64` is needed to (1) have many connections to other nodes and (2) limit incoming connection count because it can grow uncontrollably and cause problems when it goes above 1000 (open files limit in Linux). If your network connection's **upload** bandwidth is less than **10 Mbit**, use `--out-peers 8 --in-peers 16` instead.
`--add-priority-node=p2pmd.xmrvsbeast.com:18080 --add-priority-node=nodes.hashvault.pro:18080` is needed to have guaranteed good working nodes in your connected peers.
13.*(Optional but highly recommended)* You can create a Quickstart by creating a batch (.bat) file with the following contents and placing it in your P2Pool directory along with `xmrig.exe`.
Only 64-bit builds are supported, in particular ARMv7 or older CPUs are not supported. The reason is that RandomX hashing algorithm is too slow in 32-bit mode, and P2Pool needs to check new blocks very fast to keep up with other nodes.
