Only mining on testnet is availible as of now as far as I know. The coins that are mined there are not the real AE coins right? Please correct me if Im wrong. If those are real AE coins as well, I would also think of getting into the mining of AE early.
The Whitepaper says "cuckoo cycle" is among the preferred Proof-of-Work algorithms. From what I get, the algo hasn't yet been defined (no technical specs available), thus no mining is possible - correct me if I'm wrong. Even if PoW mining existed at this moment, it would work only on the testnet and the coins cannot migrate between mainnet and testnet.
Creating and implementing a new algorithm takes a bit of time - I make an analogy to Zcoin, that announced the migration to Merkle-Tree Proof in July-August. They needed 2-3 additional months to assess the academic paper of MTP PoW algo, kicked a miner release contest that lasted ~1.5 months and the transition period from Lyra2REv2 to MTP is still unclear. Haven't heard of MTP mining on testnet either.
I have also witnessed the creation of new algos out of thin air - Skunkhash, Timetravel10, possible Polytimos. These are not genuinely new, just a reworked sequence of already existing algos (Skein, Fugue, SHA256, SHA3, etc), used as cash cows by fraudulent developers (Dr. Asif Baloch from Signatum) and miner developers - namely sp_.
For that reason I am ready to wait time, until Aeternity chooses an efficient PoW algo, supported by a research paper from reputable scientists and implements it.