As I see there no point to mine Monero on a typical machine if your point is not to help the network, I do have 10k/h just to help Monero.
So, why would anyone mine monero?
Monero mining is "buying Monero" in the most permissionless and private way possible. Individuals can opt in to creating Monero using their home's electrical grid, and the government mafia would be none the wiser.
Monero's mining network is the most decentralized and permissionless fiat-to-xmr exchange for Monero buyers.
in the most permissionless and private way possible
That is true in a way, especially if you just need a small amount.
Note, however, your IP and wallet address are publicly visible (assuming you're using p2pool). Depending on how you do this and your situation, Monero mining may not be private enough. For example, if hypothetically crypto or "unhosted wallets" are illegal in your country and your local ISP is willing to cooperate with the government, then they might easily know you're mining Monero and arrest you. You could mine more anonymously if necessary, but doing so may involve some cost: e.g. anonymous hosting -> VPS is not free, using Tor -> you might lose some hashrate.
My IP address is visible to whom? And visible as doing what?
Afaik, with p2pool, one also runs a local p2pool blockchain. And his miner connects to his own p2pool node.
I guess the other p2pool nodes can see you IP (assuming not hidden behind vpn) and I guess your ISP can see you are making connectioms to p2pool-specific ports on the network. But that much alone is hardly incriminating (yet).
Genuinely curious here. How long have you been mining and has it given you any returns? Looking into potentially turning one of my Single Board Computers into a mining machine, but haven't quite pulled the trigger yet.
I have been mining since about November of last year and have gotten ~0.12XMR for my efforts. Sure its not much, but i did obtain it permissionlessly. I also have not had 8khs the whole time. Most of that time was with 2khs. Most of that 0.12XMR has been earned in the last 3 months since getting to 8khs.