First off, I am a newbie to steemit and I am excited to be here. I am also growing in my knowledge of the cryptocurrency industry. With that being said, I am still discovering and learning about the many different currencies, and their functions. Recently, Ripple was brought to my attention. It was one of several that I became open to after primarily focusing on Bitcoin. I was pretty much closed off to other currencies due to not understanding the future of the industry, and the many functions of cryptocurrency.
Ripple is pretty impressive to say the least. In simple terms, Ripple is the solution for global payments for financial institutions and banking leaders. This will be a critical link as more people accept and use cryptocurrencies, providing key infrastructure for this new type of payment. It will connect the banks, payment providers, digital asset exchanges, etc. to make sending money globally more efficient.
This was impressive until I ran across a cryptocurrency by the name of Stellar. This was a somewhat familiar name, but I never took the time to learn more about it. I was just opening myself up to "others" outside of Bitcoin. What impressed me about Stellar was similar to why I was attracted to Ripple. Stellar also promotes rapid global payments, but the difference is in its beneficiaries. While Ripple benefits the financial "giants" so to speak, Stellar does the same for the average person. If I can put it plainly, it would be like Paypal 10.0 with the ability to handle rapid micro-payments super cheap, automatic currency exchange, and real-time payment settlement. I honestly see Stellar as the future of peer-to-peer transactions, which is amazing seeing the popularity of payment processors like Paypal, Square, and Cash app. I forgot to mention that Stellar does all of this for both fiat and digital money. Wow!
So being that both Ripple and Stellar have their own lanes, and are great in their own way, I give credence to both. Both are needed and will greatly benefit the financial world. It is my opinion that both will do very well, and will be great investments for the future. Therefore, if I could answer my own question, it would be both, and not either or. They are are not competitors, but allies in improving spending as we know it.