The $XRD token provides utility in the following ways:
Gas token: 
Required to pay gas fees.

Network Securing:
Nodes are required to lock $XRD and users are able to delegate their stake to validators in order to secure the network.

Medium of exchange
$XRD is the most prominent coin used for purchasing goods or services on the network's dApps.

Gas Fees - (Utility)
Individuals that are utilizing the ecosystem's dApps will need to purchase and hold $XRD for paying gas fees.

Node Requirement - (Utility)
Nodes require a certain amount of $XRD as collateral in order to participate in network and security.

Staking Rewards - (Mechanism)
Users looking to gain a yield will purchase and hold $XRD.

Protocol Success - (Speculation)
Investors and traders are confident in the team's abilities at RDX Works, and Radix's DeFi dApp ecosystem will purchase and hold $XRD. 

Lower Development Times: 
Radix's DeFi engine allows developers to spend more time building out the business logic of their dApps, spending less time on boilerplate code, testing, and edge cases. 

Security:  
Built on Rust, Radix's smart-contract programming language, "Scrypto," takes an asset-oriented approach. Assets will be recognized as first-class citizens of the ledger. Coupled with a Finite State Machine, the probability of bugs, errors, and exploits is dramatically reduced. 

Scalability: 
Radix's Cerberus consensus is a unique approach to achieving near-unlimited scalability for DLT networks. Unlike traditional consensus algorithms that require all nodes to validate every transaction, Cerberus divides the network into smaller, more manageable groups called shards. Each shard validates a subset of transactions, allowing for parallel processing and faster transaction times. 

Value accrual to token:
Locking tokens: 
The circulating supply is reduced as users stake their tokens to participate in consensus and earn yield.

Burning fees: 
The more transactions on the ledger, the more fees denominated in $XRD are burnt. 

Value accrual to the protocol: 
Half of the transaction fees are burnt, while the remaining are allocated to validators. Therefore, other than token allocation, no value or revenue of this kind is accrued to the treasury of the Radix Foundation, RDX Works Ltd., or any of their subsidiaries.

Currently, the Radix protocol's business model needs proper revenue sources. At this point, the protocol relies on $XRD emissions to incentivize various types of users within the ecosystem.

Emissions come from:
- Protocol emissions are solely sourced through staking.
- Amount to an estimated 300M units per year.
- Due to be released every year for the next 40 years.
-Update: Since the Babylon release, 50% of transaction fees are burnt, while 50% are allocated to validators.


Emissions are denominated in:
- $XRD

Emissions go to:
- Ecosystem participants that help perform consensus and ensure network security.
- The two main participants that perform these functions are Validator Nodes and Delegators.
- Radix Foundation and its subsidiaries that operate 4 out of the 100 active validator nodes.