LG Electronics released its non-fungible token – or NFT – platform LG Art Lab, which lets users discover, buy, sell and trade NFTs on LG’s smart TVs. The South Korean multinational electronics company partnered with the Hedera network to present an app that allows users to purchase NFTs via Wallypto, LG’s crypto wallet for smartphones.
Chris Jo, senior Vice President and head of Platform business at LG Electronics home entertainment company, told TechCrunch, “Wallypto, built on Hedera, has been developing since September 2021. Its beta version of the wallet launched this week in August.”
The announcement comes around eight months after LG Electronics expressed at its press conference that it intends to integrate NFT features into its smart TVs. The platform is only available in the U.S. to those with LG TV running webOS 5.0 or later and is accessible directly from the home screen.
The partnership between Hedera and LG Electronics began in 2020 when LG joined the Hedera governing council, which includes Google, the Indian Institute of Technology, IBM, and Deutsche Telekom.
The NFT platform provides a ‘Drops’ feature that profiles artists and displays their new artwork previews. Its real-time ‘Live Drops’ feature gives notifications to enable users to receive a dropped NFT to ensure they do not forget the opportunity.
“While many people have heard of NFTs and would like to participate in the growing ecosystem, it can be overly complex and difficult to get started. LG Art Lab is designed to allow millions of users in the U.S. to easily access and display NFTs, without having to interact with code or directly with a blockchain themselves,” Jo said.
He added that Hedera allows users to transact for less than 0.0001 cents per transaction – with no high gas fee or hidden costs – implying that there are no hidden costs associated with the NFT platform.
South Korea’s IT and entertainment companies have entered the non-fungible token (NFT) industry. In January, LG’s opponent Samsung revealed its new intelligent TV-based NFT marketplace objective. Samsung said it would add NFT features on Samsung TVs like MICRO LED and Neo QLED.
So yes, consumers can now buy, sell, trade, and display NFTs on their LG TVs, but how many will really do it?
