How Does the “Opportunity Cost” of Mining Relate to the Attacker’s Profit Motive?

The opportunity cost of mining is the potential profit a miner foregoes by using their hash power for a malicious attack (like a double-spend) instead of mining legitimate blocks. A successful attack risks devaluing the coin, which would devalue the attacker's mining hardware and future legitimate mining revenue.

This opportunity cost acts as a significant deterrent, as the attacker must weigh the short-term gain from the double-spend against the long-term loss of profitable mining.