South Korean consumer tech giant, LG Electronics, has filed a patent for a TV that would allow users to buy, sell and swap Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).
According to the paperwork at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the device would connect itself to an NFT market server, showcase a variety of artworks and permit purchases through a user’s cryptocurrency wallet connected to the TV set—all from the comfort of their living room.
This patent is the latest in a series of ambitious metaverse and NFT plans the Southeast Asian behemoth announced last year.
In September 2022, LG launched its own NFT marketplace, dubbed “LG Art Labs” which enabled users to trade digital collectibles via U.S. LG televisions running their webOS 5.0 operating system.
At the start of 2023, the company doubled down on its metaverse plans. It launched the Blade Wallet, which connects to LG Art Labs to enable NFT trading.
To expand into the cryptocurrency market, LG Electronics partnered with Hedera Hashgraph in 2020, a distributed ledger technology company that is touted as an alternative to blockchains. Hedera has also been working with Google, IBM, and Ubisoft.
This move comes amid a cooling off of 2022, which was supposed to be the “Year of the Metaverse.” At the time, there was massive commercial interest—both in research and development. The Oxford Dictionary even shortlisted “metaverse” as word of the year.
South Korea is a consumer electronics powerhouse, and LG isn’t alone in its quest for market share in the digital assets industry. Samsung, its main competitor, also announced plans last year to build out an NFT marketplace, through a partnership with Nifty.
Despite the cooling off period, yesterday’s filing shows LG is still confident the NFT market will be an important player of the digital economy moving forward.
Editor's Note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that LG partnered with Hedera Hashgraph in 2022.