A lot of people are making comments about the bear market, which was brought on by the crashes of some coins like FTX and Luna. I'm curious as to what sets Bitcoin apart from these other coins. Considering that it's been said that Bitcoin won't be impacted and will continue to grow, what are the key difference between the two Bitcoin and other coins?
The situation with FTX and LUNA made the bear period worse, but that wasn't what caused it, there would be a bear market even without those events, but it might not have fallen this low (speculative talk). Nonetheless Bitcoin would definitely be impacted by the bear market, but only temporarily, but Bitcoin isn't going to disappear or go into oblivion as many coins/tokens do during and immediately after the crypto bear market. The key difference between Bitcoin and other coins is that Bitcoin has an actual utility, it isn't a pump and dump coin and because of its utility there will always be demand, thus the price will always appreciate and continue to grow.
The second is about Bitcoin mining; what is the difference between investing in bitcoin and mining bitcoin, or are they interchangeable? If you do not wish to purchase, will you mine your own Bitcoin?
They are not really interchangeable, investing in Bitcoin is when you use your funds to buy Bitcoin and hodl it for for the long term to make ROI. Bitcoin mining has to do with purchasing equipments required for mining and joining the Bitcoin community of miners in competing to add the next block in the blockchain. Mining your own Bitcoin is more expensive than purchasing it, so you may want to just purchase it rather than setting up a mining rig and paying for electricity necessary to mine, though you can join a mining pool and earn based on what you are contributing to the pool.