Alright, let's say I have a budget of 1000 USD and I want to invest it into cryptocurrency. Is it better to buy my own setup and mine or do cloud mining or should I buy some coins directly ? What cryptocurrency might be the best for long-term profit ? I am willing to lose that money (although I would be sad ofc) but I wanna somehow start with cryptos since I believe it has got a great future.
Mining is mainly for those living off grid who generate their own electricity via windmills/solar panels/etcetera or those who have access to a limitless supply of cheap (or free) electricity to power their mining rigs. The difficulty of mining coins is always increasing and so being profitable from a mining perspective is always a battle of diminishing returns where the cost of electricity factors in heavily. When the value of a coin rises, it becomes easier for mining to be profitable. But in most instances a lone miner probably won't be as profitable as simply buying coins and holding them over the long term.
There are a lot of cloud mining turnkey operations which promise the power of cloud mining through a browser interface with only making an account being required. Those have a poor reputation and usually aren't profitable due to the number of additional middle men in the chain who have to make their profit. With cloud mining basic electricity costs aren't necessarily optimized or kept at a minimum which could make it inferior to more independent miners who have access to cheaper energy.
I'm not certain which crypto currency is undervalued at the moment with a good potential for growth. Looking over stats and metrics probably wouldn't be a good bet if you're looking for short term gains. The best one might hope for may be to get in early wherever the pump and dumpers plan to go next & be lucky enough to ride their pump on its way up. Or maybe to wait for the next big fork announcement which could drive the value of btc down & wait for its price to decline before getting in and (hopefully) riding it back up.