I ask because there is a lot of cynicism here(which i share) about Bitcoin but I wonder if there a rosier views for coins with more privacy, lower transaction fees, etc.
It has a network of academics working on protocols and R&D and even one of the founders of the Haskell programming language.
IOHK is the company building cardano
https://iohk.io/en/team/philip-wadler
PoS consensus protocol https://cardano.org/ouroboros/
They are also one of the few blockchains to use nixos in production
Cardano was founded by Ethereum's co-founder Charles Hoskinson and is a 3rd gen block chain aiming to dethrone Ethereum
Others that I find useful: 1. Ethereum 2. Link 3. BAT
None. At least until a sovereign nation decides to ditch fiat for crypto. The first to do that, I bet, will still treat it like fiat and use all the classical monetary policies. So, it'll be crypto in name only.
Eventually, IMHO, Bitcoin will eat all the money in the world, stabilize at something like 10-15 million per. Then it'll just kinda take over as being more trustworthy than any fiat. Of course countries will try to regulate the heck out of it. But, since it has no president of Bitcoin, it'll survive.
Then, we'll have to deal with the knock on effects of a deflationary currency and all that entails.
XLM wants to achieve some goals that are just amazing and it works so well. It is there to convert and send money feeless and fast without even the need to have a XML wallet on the recieving party.