3. Mining

Monero uses RandomX, a proof-of-work algorithm designed for ordinary CPUs. That makes home mining realistic, and every home miner helps keep hashrate decentralized.

Step	What you'll do
3.1 P2Pool	Run a decentralized mining pool node on top of your monerod
3.2 XMRig	Run the miner, on the node or on other computers, and point it at P2Pool

Why P2Pool instead of a regular pool?

Centralized pools decide which transactions go into blocks, hold your earnings and charge fees. A few large pools have at times controlled a large share of Monero's hashrate. P2Pool has no operator: it's a peer-to-peer sidechain where miners share work, and every Monero block it finds pays all recent miners directly in the coinbase transaction. No fees, no registration, no custodian.

Profitability

Mining on a home PC rarely makes a profit after electricity. Think of it as supporting the network and getting a small trickle of XMR, not as an investment. Watch your CPU temperatures.