Comparison between Ripple (XRP) and Stellar Lumens (XLM)

Stellar Lumens and Ripple are similar yet different in many aspects. Stellar Lumens were created from a hardfork of the original Ripple protocol in 2014. Since then they have changed yet they still share many similarities.

 Also many differences.

The similarities start by sharing the same founder, Jed McCaleb. The teams behind each cryptocurrency are different however. The Stellar Development Foundation is behind XLM while XRP is backed by the privately held company Ripple. The team behind XLM is nonprofit while Ripple is a for profit organization. Both XRP and XLM are designed to operate as underlying payment processing systems. They both do this extremely effectively with XLM having a transaction time of 2-5 seconds while XRP has a transaction time of about 4 seconds.

Some differences include the inflationary and deflationary nature of the cryptocurrencies. XLM increases at a fixed rate of 1% a year. This is in contrast of Ripple which is actually deflationary due to a variable "burn" rate. Essentially, some XRP are removed and the supply of XRP constricts.

Currently, there are 103 billion XLM in supply while XRP is slightly lower at 100 billion in supply. This does not mean these are all on the open market however. The Stellar Development Foundation holds 85 billion XLM and the foundation behind XRP holds a lower amount at 62 Billion XRP.

The difference in funding is extreme. Stellar has $5 million in funding for the ongoing development of the project while Ripple has a comparatively larger amount at $100 million.

Here is a great info graph that helps distinguish the differences between the two cryptocurrencies:

Here is an article on Stellar and Ripple: http://bitcoinist.com/ripple-vs-stellar-coin-will-win/