Not a bad write up.
Ripple's Consensus Ledger is very different than XRP
The one place you leave out is this difference. The Ripple Labs Consensus Ledger product certainly is described by your post fairly well. Everything that references XRP however, is not in fact a required component of the RCL network. While I will not argue about its possible utility, I will say that the current investors do not know what they have bought into and I am not certain how long this speculation can last (cough polo).
You have to understand what XRP is actually for. The Ripple Consensus Ledger (the thing that all the banks are using) is designed to allow value transfer between different currencies with a sort of hopping between different market makers. This happens without the utility of any XRP (yeah yeah fees, not the point here). XRP was designed as a way for many market makers to make a paring with - thus allowing for many transactions to occur with only one hop: curr1:->:XRP:->curr2
The value is skyrocketing due to many factors, not many of which are due to its merits as a crypto in the first place. if you can even call it a crypto - centralized...
-Me somewhere else.
That is a very important point @kyle.anderson.
If XRP is not used as a currency for trade but only to pay fees, then the GDP would not matter that much.
I would really like to know what is the role that XRP would play in the Ripple network. If you can guide me, I would appreciate it a lot.
well really it is to improve liquidity and to provide fee incentives. although I believe both are broken in some ways. there are better solutions with smart contracts now.
banks are not using XRP rn.