http://lm.i2p/nojs/knowledge/p2pool-decentralizing-monero-mining?dismissNotice=true
Thankfully p2pool in Monero has been well-designed and well-built, and functions extremely well! However, the main drawback of p2pool mining is that each miner who wants to use p2pool has to run their own Monero node, causing the process of getting started to be a bit more involved. However, this node is then used to calculate all of the information necessary for building and checking blocks, and ensures that the miner is in complete control of their work being done.