A Vaporware is seen as a crypto platform that has remained a mere concept, and it does not have a working product. Some people erroneously think that every Vaporware project is dead, but that is not always the case. Some of them are dead, while others are still being developed.
When a project is a Vaporware, it may be worked on by the development team, and it is not yet available to the public. Sometimes, it may merely be a concept, and no one is actively working on it. In this aspect, people may see the project as being dead.
When a project is announced months or years before it is released to the public, it is Vaporware. Usually, those behind this type of project spend a lot on marketing it without a working product available to the public. Many projects that undergo ICOs belong to this category.
At their ICO stage, most projects do not have a working model, meaning that investors are only buying the tokens in the hope that the development team will release a product to the public in the future. In some cases, this does not happen.
For these kind of projects, no one can tell if the product will be successful because it is not available to the public and has not been tested. People merely buy the underlying tokens hoping that it is released and becomes successful.
Sometimes, a development team may promote the Vaporware fiercely to motivate investors to buy the tokens and inflate the value. Users should remain alert here because all information is not disclosed here.
In some cases, this type of project may end up being successful. In other cases, it may not be released into the market, or it may be released and fails woefully. While participating in a project, do your due diligence.