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LG Shuns Ethereum, Picks Hedera for Television NFTs

The consumer electronics company, which has served on the Hedera Governing Council since 2020, is bringing NFTs to television screens through a platform built on the Hedera network.

Updated May 11, 2023, 5:37 p.m. Published Sep 5, 2022, 1:00 a.m.

LG will only support NFTs on Hedera Hashgraph. (Kārlis Dambrāns/Flickr)

Another consumer electronics company is taking NFTs to TV screens.

Korea-based LG is releasing a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace called LG Art Lab that plugs into the Hedera Network, which LG supports. Television owners with sets updated to LG’s most recent software will be able to buy, sell and showcase their Hedera NFTs from their screens.

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LG’s strides into the NFT space follow Samsung’s release of an NFT marketplace on three of its TVs, all supported by Nifty Gateway. LG Art Lab will only be on LG TVs. Incorporating LG's mobile crypto wallet Wallypto, users can purchase assets by scanning a QR code to connect their wallets.

Chris Jo, senior vice president and head of Platform Business at LG, told CoinDesk in an email the platform aims to make NFTs accessible for users looking to step into the space.

The choice of Hedera is not an obvious one for an NFT integration. The platform NFT trading scene is not nearly as popular as on better-known blockchains such as Ethereum, where most so-called "blue chips" live. (Hedera uses a different technology called hashgraph).

Ethereum's top NFT marketplace OpenSea has processed $333 million in NFT trades in the past 30 days, according to DappRadar. By contrast, one of the leading NFT marketplaces on Hedera, called Zuse, has processed $1.22 million in trades over the same period.

Still, Hedera makes more sense for LG: It has been on Hedera’s Governing Council since 2020.

Shayne Higdon, CEO of the HBAR Foundation, an organization supporting developers on the Hedera network, told CoinDesk Hedera’s energy-efficient consensus mechanism makes it an ideal blockchain for cheap, low-carbon-footprint NFT transfers. Still, other networks are catching up; market leader Ethereum is moving to a more energy-efficient proof-of-stake system this month.

Correction (9/8/2022 7:00p.m. EST): This article has been corrected to better demonstrate transaction activity between Hedera and Ethereum.

LG NFTs Hedera

Cam Thompson

Cam Thompson was a Web3 reporter at CoinDesk. She is a recent graduate of Tufts University, where she majored in Economics and Science & Technology Studies. As a student, she was marketing director of the Tufts Blockchain Club. She currently holds positions in BTC and ETH.