mine a Bitcoin or buy a bitcoin？

[BitcoinPanther]

It wasn't confusing anyway which one to choose. Just think about yourself and what you can really afford OP.
Think about that mining needs more capital to start a business like this, unlike just go buying Bitcoin because even with small amounts you can have it already. Well, even though you can really afford to put up mining machines due to mining competition, It is really preferred to just invest and hold, it was no hassles on our ends and we can still make another business. 

The mining suggested by OP is cloudmining which can be purchased cheaper than the usual mining rig since it can be "bought" per x hashes.  But the thing is cloud mining has been proven unprofitable and most of the service offering cloudmining either closes or turned into a scam.  Even the well know CEX.IO which is once one of the largest cloudmining company changes its service because they are getting bankrupt. 
Between mining and buying Bitcoin, I always think buying Bitcoin is the better approach for a non-technical person.

[TelolettOm]

Mining Bitcoin is worth, but right now, this also needs a high cost. If we have not much money to buy all requirements and equipment needed for mining, it is better to buy Bitcoin.
Buying Bitcoin may be easy, but as long as we have the free money, we can buy it easily in a trusted and reputable exchange. Then we can save the coin for a certain period, based on our own goal for investment. Especially for long-term investment.
The difficulty may be on our responsibility and acceptance of every condition happened to the Bitcoin market. Because investing in Bitcoin is risky, we will not face the price always being in a positive trend There will be always any FUD and negative news that will probably make the price of Bitcoin fall down again. That is why it will depend on our responsibility and acceptance of whether we are ready with this situation or not. If we are ready and understand the condition, commonly we can keep holding the coin. But if we are not ready and expect too much, we will panic and sell of our coin in the smaller price.

[South Park]

It wasn't confusing anyway which one to choose. Just think about yourself and what you can really afford OP.
Think about that mining needs more capital to start a business like this, unlike just go buying Bitcoin because even with small amounts you can have it already. Well, even though you can really afford to put up mining machines due to mining competition, It is really preferred to just invest and hold, it was no hassles on our ends and we can still make another business. 

The mining suggested by OP is cloudmining which can be purchased cheaper than the usual mining rig since it can be "bought" per x hashes.  But the thing is cloud mining has been proven unprofitable and most of the service offering cloudmining either closes or turned into a scam.  Even the well know CEX.IO which is once one of the largest cloudmining company changes its service because they are getting bankrupt. 
Between mining and buying Bitcoin, I always think buying Bitcoin is the better approach for a non-technical person.

Cloudmining has never really worked so it is kind of odd that people are still interested in this when there is so much evidence against it, now mining by buying specialized equipment does in fact work but as you state it requires a great deal of expertise that most people do not have, however it can be a great learning experience for those that are interested in bitcoin not only from a financial point of view but from a technical one as well, however the majority of the people are not like that and as such it is better for them to just buy bitcoin and forget about mining.

[mich]

Well personally I suspect it will cost you much more fiat just to mine 1 Bitcoin then it will to purchase 1 Bitcoin at its current price of 20k.

When we consider the cost of the mining like hardware and electricity and also the risk factor it is better to just buy 1 coin if you are Bullish like I am and suspect the 'Bear market' will be over in less then 2 years.

[MinoRaiola]

A story about a purchase of Miner in 2019. At bitmain there was a fight for devices in 2019 and when the batches were released, they were sold out in a few days/hours. I remember when the S9 or L3 were sold and everyone used their BCH for it. After the batch, the prices changed a lot and people thought about trading BCH in BTC only. It would made more sense and it would have saved a lot of stress and time. The delivery took 8-12 weeks and even longer. So this year I would said : buy bitcoin. It depends on the situation, the year and the amount i think.

[Esther C]

In general, there are two ways to acquire bitcoins: buying them with real money or "mining" them. The process of mining is the process of acquiring bitcoin, and therefore mining is mining for coins.

So let's start with buying coins. Many people think that buying currency is like buying stocks. The threshold is low and anyone can buy it directly. In addition, they believe that the cost of buying coins is low, so they only need to pay the money to buy coins. But buying currency such as investing in stocks, the income is also big risk, you buy currency in the hand, the price of the currency rises you earn, the price of the currency falls you compensate. And the early need to do a lot of homework, which is similar to buying stocks, which requires you to understand the background of the investors all kinds of information, need to in-depth understanding of all kinds of basic information, according to their own cognition to make choices.

In fact, you can invest Bitcoin quantitatively every day. You only need to invest once to obtain long-term returns. As long as your machine is up and running, it generates a certain amount of bitcoins every day, and the benefits are endless. Acquiring bitcoins this way does not require you to watch the price every day, wait for the price to rise later, and directly trade in cash. Relatively speaking, cloud mining is the lowest cost.

Although the return of buying currency is high, the risk and return coexist, so investors also need to bear the risk of the currency price falling. And mining money is drought and flood guarantee. As an investor, we should take a long-term view of mining machine production.

Funny how I don’t know what it means to mine Bitcoin😄

[Kelvinid]

I'll go buying Bitcoin rather than spending time doing cloud mining or even spending a lot of money acquiring mining equipment.
Besides, if we talk about earning a profit and having a safe play, buying and holding Bitcoin is gonna be preferred. And maybe because I don't like mining and I have no knowledge about it as well.
But if we talk about cloud mining, no - it doesn't work.

[Mahanton]

I'll go buying Bitcoin rather than spending time doing cloud mining or even spending a lot of money acquiring mining equipment.
Besides, if we talk about earning a profit and having a safe play, buying and holding Bitcoin is gonna be preferred. And maybe because I don't like mining and I have no knowledge about it as well.
But if we talk about cloud mining, no - it doesn't work.

If you are really that tech savvy and does have that interest on doing mining things or on the sake of curiosity then you would really be testing out mining but if not then and you
do find it to be complicated then you would rather just choose on buying bitcoin rather than putting yourself into all hassles and technicality on where this thing do cover up.
Even myself do get interested on mining when i do start on learning crypto or bitcoin but on the time that i've known that asic miners or even gpu cost isnt just too
cheap plus having that expensive electricity cost then i do already skip out and lost interest.Of course you would really be should knowing these factors first before diving.

[boyptc]

When we consider the cost of the mining like hardware and electricity and also the risk factor it is better to just buy 1 coin if you are Bullish like I am and suspect the 'Bear market' will be over in less then 2 years.

Buying is effortless and better.

If you don't intend to be a miner then you don't have to mine and make an effort of building everything. Just buy and hold it on however long you want it to hold.

The goal is to have at least 1 BTC before another unexpected huge bull run comes.

[n0ne]

When we consider the cost of the mining like hardware and electricity and also the risk factor it is better to just buy 1 coin if you are Bullish like I am and suspect the 'Bear market' will be over in less then 2 years.

Buying is effortless and better.

If you don't intend to be a miner then you don't have to mine and make an effort of building everything. Just buy and hold it on however long you want it to hold.

The goal is to have at least 1 BTC before another unexpected huge bull run comes.

It is based on one's financial strength, because buying bitcoin during this bear market seems to be fair than spending on mining equipments. As the above mate suggested, rather than being a miner just buying and holding will bring assured profit long term and there is no need of unwanted pressure handling the maintenance and other power issues associated while mining.

[Stella Mese]

Buying and mining bitcoin is all about base on the capital which the person has to start the investment. You know mining bitcoin needs more capital to start because you have to buy the machine and after buying machine you still need energy to power the machine before mining, buying bitcoin is much more easier to the bitcoiner. One can use any amount of money to buy bitcoin and stored it in the wallet to grow.

your thoughts are the same as mine,,, I agree with what you think, because mining requires capital, so in my opinion it is better to buy bitcoins than mining, but people who mine bitcoins are also people who are meritorious because of our mining so can buy bitcoin. so mining or buying is the same.

[awik p]

When we consider the cost of the mining like hardware and electricity and also the risk factor it is better to just buy 1 coin if you are Bullish like I am and suspect the 'Bear market' will be over in less then 2 years.

Buying is effortless and better.

If you don't intend to be a miner then you don't have to mine and make an effort of building everything. Just buy and hold it on however long you want it to hold.

The goal is to have at least 1 BTC before another unexpected huge bull run comes.

It is based on one's financial strength, because buying bitcoin during this bear market seems to be fair than spending on mining equipments. As the above mate suggested, rather than being a miner just buying and holding will bring assured profit long term and there is no need of unwanted pressure handling the maintenance and other power issues associated while mining.

Bitcoin profits can indeed be bought not in full quantities, so we can buy according to our ability and then hold it until the bullish season comes. on the other hand, by mining, we also spend a lot of capital on the other hand with the amount of electricity used where we pay according to fiat money, so when bitcoin experiences a big correction like today we will have trouble with operational problems every month. that's why I prefer to buy and hold it

[bestcoins1]

your thoughts are the same as mine,,, I agree with what you think, because mining requires capital, so in my opinion it is better to buy bitcoins than mining, but people who mine bitcoins are also people who are meritorious because of our mining so can buy bitcoin. so mining or buying is the same.

If I actually think of it a little differently because mining sometimes requires a large capital initially so that it can generate more Bitcoins, whereas buying instantly does not require large capital at first. Because everyone can buy with the capital they have and it doesn't have to be big right away, although the goal is almost the same, namely getting more Bitcoin through the market. But this is a slightly different thing to do because mining requires a special design of the device, whereas buying only requires a market to visit.

[Awwal08]

These are, in my opinion, the two independent ways to obtain bitcoin. Depending on how you want to get it, you have two options. If I were to give advice, I would recommend to only buy if you have funds you are willing to risk or can afford to lose. If there is no money, mining will require patience. You can choose between buying or mining; both options are valid.

[boyptc]

When we consider the cost of the mining like hardware and electricity and also the risk factor it is better to just buy 1 coin if you are Bullish like I am and suspect the 'Bear market' will be over in less then 2 years.

Buying is effortless and better.

If you don't intend to be a miner then you don't have to mine and make an effort of building everything. Just buy and hold it on however long you want it to hold.

The goal is to have at least 1 BTC before another unexpected huge bull run comes.

It is based on one's financial strength, because buying bitcoin during this bear market seems to be fair than spending on mining equipments. As the above mate suggested, rather than being a miner just buying and holding will bring assured profit long term and there is no need of unwanted pressure handling the maintenance and other power issues associated while mining.

It is fair at all times as long as you have it planned and you have money ready to purchase bitcoin.

No offense but those who like to be miners, there's a different sensation of being one. There's the achievement that you can feel for being one of the validators in the network.

You're helping the network and at the same time you earn from it. Well, the biggest ones are those who have invested heavily with the equipment and maybe you'll feel that feeling too if you become one.

[TheGreatPython]

These are, in my opinion, the two independent ways to obtain bitcoin. Depending on how you want to get it, you have two options. If I were to give advice, I would recommend to only buy if you have funds you are willing to risk or can afford to lose. If there is no money, mining will require patience. You can choose between buying or mining; both options are valid.

When you mine a bitcoin you will also agree about the risk because mining a bitcoin is not easy. It's either you can earn more or you can lose more money in the process but before we get there, you must also have a good capital since bitcoin mining hardwares are not cheap. This is not an example of investing what you can only afford to lose but buying directly a bitcoin is, because you can lower the quantity according to your own capacity.

If there is no money available then you can't do both mining and buying a btc but there are still many ways to acquire a bitcoin for free and the only capital that you will be needing is your time and skill.

[samuraijin]

Two independent ways to get bitcoin, but if you have so much money then it never hurts to try to make bitcoin mining, no matter how small it is at least making results, but in short you can buy bitcoin without having to mine it and buy mining tools that cost millions of dollars, but most people prefer to buy rather than have to mine to buy bitcoin mining tools, and require a large enough capital...

[danadc]

Investment wise, i'll go buying. Mining will take years before you reach your ROI.

Those user who chose mining should have enough reasons not just simply, "to have profit in the long run", "help blockchain network", "learn technicals", etc. We're talking money and investments, simply a business.
There are lots of consideration to mine bitcoin. Location, hardwares ^{(including installations and maintenance)}, electricity, man power, running a business regulation/requirements, lastly a huge sum of capital. Now if you have it all and have easy access to them, then that's a good choice to go mining.

I am very interested in mining, but I know that in bitcoin I have no hope, because I would compete with the great titans, and obviously I will not have decent profits, but in altcoin mining I can think of something that can be revived , I have seen that high prices are low, this is the ideal time to start this exercise, what I lack is the money to be able to buy the machines, I have weighed in one available to be able to mine ETH, but bitcoin is what It is more interesting to me, I have thought about buying small laptops to be able to use them as bitcoin miners, and some miners do it, the laptops last 3 months and then they are damaged, but I have studied the way to see if it is profitable.

[laurenB7742]

It wasn't confusing anyway which one to choose. Just think about yourself and what you can really afford OP.
Think about that mining needs more capital to start a business like this, unlike just go buying Bitcoin because even with small amounts you can have it already. Well, even though you can really afford to put up mining machines due to mining competition, It is really preferred to just invest and hold, it was no hassles on our ends and we can still make another business. 

The process of mining bitcoins becomes more challenging if you live in a country that does not consider bitcoin to be legal, or if your country has high energy costs that make mining difficult. Buying and holding are easier, we can do it anywhere and anytime as long as we have a need. You cannot mine bitcoins in a country that bans bitcoin but you can buy bitcoin there one way or another.

Mining is not always profitable, if bitcoin plummets then you will incur some loss in energy costs, daily maintenance...Meanwhile, if bitcoin plummets, it is an opportunity for holders, the lower the price, the higher the profit opportunity.

[Piesel]

I have a different viewpoint from what others have mentioned here in the comments section haven't read through the comments, but I think we should pay more attention to motivation because in the long run that is what will fuel your patience. Both Bitcoin mining and buying are the most popular ways to own Bitcoin faster but there both require time most especially of your attention to owning the Bitcoin is for the asset's sake, for your investment to yield profits you need to wait for some time and that is why most people advocate for long term bitcoin holding, so one needs the motivation to be able to wait for a couple of years before expecting a result.

I will love to go into Bitcoin mining as I have been involved in the altcoin market since the beginning of the altcoin boom in 2016-2017, I believe with my level of motivation and experience I will be able to wait for some time to build my mining farm since am doing it for the excitement sake I want to test the journey and contribute my quarter to the Bitcoin network.