GO to Ethereum forum and see every year its the same thing I remember a Member the smoking man(he is actually from the good members but History proved him wrong everytime, at least till now) was "arguing' against mining about a year ago in march or febrouar 2016? so what did we learned from the "Bad mouthing of 2016 against Mining? people with 6x480 in one year made 100k$ (180mhs ETH x Months was 50 Eth as of June or july 2016)
and again other members about 2 weeks before ZEC and we remember how ZEC started and how many MONEYZ some people have made,
How much more would they of made if they invested all of their money straight into ETH? or ZEC?
Unless they have money to burn (the best kind of money) who in their right mind would have plopped down $20K on a new coin like Eth or Zec a year ago? There were no guarantees. Same as today... Would you invest $20K in Signatum, Denarius, or Zencash right now... and be strong enough to hold for a year?
Exactly, mining is a safer choice, no doubt investing in the right coin can give much higher returns. Noone know whats the market is going to be tomorow, a single hack and the best of the coin can get decrease 99% in value !!