The Block: DigixDAO approves the commitment of $4M to bring gold-backed token DGX to everyday consumers

The DigixDAO community has pooled together $4.3 million in ether (ETH) for Digix, in order to bring its gold-backed token DGX to everyday consumers. One DGX token is backed by 1 gram of gold.

DigixDAO is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that's responsible for governing Digix and allocating funds. DigixDAO raised 466,648 ETH in a 2016 token sale. It currently has about 335,432 ETH in its multi-sig wallet , worth about $57.3 million at the time of writing.

Digix wants to build a global platform where DGX is available directly to users via over-the-counter (OTC) broker-dealers, according to a press release shared with The Block on Thursday.

Joseph Lee, a project lead at startup NeutralG, will work together with Digix on the initiative, per the announcement. Digix said $1.5 million or 7,500 ETHs, out of the total funding, has already been released for the first phase of the project.

The firm is particularly targeting Southeast Asian countries with its planned fiat-on ramping platform, where mobile payments and ePayment options are used as “everyday payment methods.”

The fiat-DGX currency pairs will include – Singapore Dollar, Thai Bhat, Philippine Peso, Burmese Kyat, Indonesian Rupiah, Euro and Sterling Pound (GBP), Digix said, adding: The project is expected to be "fully operational by end of Q2’2020."