Wiring a ceiling fan to the house wiring

Absolutely do not leave the wires alone wrapped in electrical tape. Electrical tape does not have enough longevity to safely protect the exposed leads and can create a hazard in the future.

The blue wire exists to support the future addition of a light. The polite thing to do for your future self or future owner of your home would be to connect the blue and red wires. However, it is not necessary; if you do not want to, you can cap both leads with wire nuts.

Note that it is also legitimate to connect the black on the fan to the red from the ceiling, and the blue on the fan to the black from the ceiling. Assuming you have two switches, that will swap which switch controls the fan and which switch controls the light.

If the existing black-black connection doesn't work, you can try the black-red. If that does work, it would suggest that the switch for the fan has failed, although it could also indicate other wiring problems.

Yes, it's definitions possible that the black with white stripe is the same as blue. Though you might find that the black is blue, and the black with white stripe is black.

In either case it won't matter, if you get it wrong you'll just have to switch them.