LG is applying for a patent for a TV that enables NFT trading. What is the appeal?

LG has ventured further into NFTs by applying for a patent for a TV that facilitates NFT trading. The electronics firm is building its presence in a domain where Samsung has made bold innovations early in 2022. But do consumers need such a TV?

Electronics giant LG has applied for patent protection for a TV that enables the trading of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). According to the patent, the device will be able to establish a connection with an NFT market server and enable NFT trading using a connected wallet.

LG authentication

It also suggests the device will use biometric authentication, with users using a front-facing camera to access their wallet.

In March 2022, Samsung partnered with Nifty Gateway to introduce its own NFT marketplace, Samsung NFT Hub, for its TVs.

This is the second major NFT news from LG in the past year. Last September, the company announced the launch of its own NFT marketplace, LG Art Lab.

Currently, only US customers with an LG TV running webOS 5.0 or later can access the app. The app uses the Hedera Network, which runs on a hashgraph, and not a blockchain. LG has been a node operator on the Hedera Network since 2020.

Hashgraphs are similar in that they are also a distributed public ledger. Although they offer faster transaction speed, improved scalability and improved security compared to traditional blockchains.

In January, the company announced a partnership with the Hedera-based Blade Wallet, for use with the LG Art Lab app on its smart TVs.

Why NFTs on a TV?

Most NFT traders will interact with the marketplace and share their collections on mobile or personal computers. But LG and Samsung’s entry into NFTs-on-TVs shows that someone, somewhere, thinks that’s not enough.

Gökçe Güven, managing director and co-founder of Kalder, believes this is a positive development for users. “While NFTs usually reside in the wallet and perhaps on the social media profiles of their owners, they can now be displayed on the walls of their holders,” he told BeInCrypto.

“The additional ability to buy and trade NFTs from the TV is also a great value addition, especially since it can be difficult to do so from mobile devices,” added Güven.

For others, further integration of TVs and NFTs helps put the digital assets front and center. Gianfranco Lopane, president of Habitat, an open metaverse that offers NFT-deeded properties, believes it can help “bridge the digital and physical worlds.”

“TVs sit at the center of our homes. This in turn will bring NFTs into more people’s lives, and I think may actually give them a taste for the metaverse, where NFTs also appear inside homes and where the digital and physical realms merge,” said Lopane.