A prototype is supposed to never get used. The point is to learn - to explore the territory so you have an idea of what's a good idea and what's a bad when you start implementing the real thing.
I just threw out a prototype last week, and started on implementation for real. I was able to cut about 70% of the features, throw out a couple third-party libraries and bleeding-edge language features that turned out to be more trouble than they're worth, identify 2 areas that really needed to be firmed up and made more robust before they'll support a "real" system (and have about 20 concrete examples of the first and 80 of the second, so I can design the features with actual data), and revise the API 4 times, for 5 weeks of work. It helps that I'm both CEO and only developer and so have the political clout to do this. And I'm under no illusions that this is the "final" revision - I'm doing this incarnation with somewhat more robust development practices, but I still expect I'll have to throw it out in a year or two. But it certainly beats doing those 4 revisions over a year (with a 7-person team) and then going out of business, as happened in a startup I'd previously worked at.
I just threw out a prototype last week, and started on implementation for real. I was able to cut about 70% of the features, throw out a couple third-party libraries and bleeding-edge language features that turned out to be more trouble than they're worth, identify 2 areas that really needed to be firmed up and made more robust before they'll support a "real" system (and have about 20 concrete examples of the first and 80 of the second, so I can design the features with actual data), and revise the API 4 times, for 5 weeks of work. It helps that I'm both CEO and only developer and so have the political clout to do this. And I'm under no illusions that this is the "final" revision - I'm doing this incarnation with somewhat more robust development practices, but I still expect I'll have to throw it out in a year or two. But it certainly beats doing those 4 revisions over a year (with a 7-person team) and then going out of business, as happened in a startup I'd previously worked at.