LG is joining Samsung in making NFTs available to their smart TV owners. If free screensavers and art aren't good enough, I guess you could buy an NFT that is also functionally and visibly identical, available free elsewhere if there were any NFTs for sale in LGs marketplace.
I have a Samsung TV and haven't even looked at this functionality. When I am not watching the TV, I turn it off.
But once there's actually an NFT you can buy from the platform, LG says you can scan the QR code that appears on the screen, and then open the Wallypto app on your phone to complete the transaction. Before you do that, you'll need to purchase USD Coin (USDC), a stablecoin that's supposed to be pegged to the US dollar (and managed to maintain that peg when other stablecoins crashed).
LG's NFT platform is built on Hedera, which describes itself as the "most used, sustainable, enterprise public ledger for the decentralized economy." Unlike the Ethereum or Solana networks many popular NFT marketplaces support, the Hedera network doesn't operate on the blockchain — it uses a blockchain alternative, called hashgraph. LG is just one of the several corporations that serve as a governing member of the Hedera network, with proponents of the system claiming it's faster and more efficient than transacting on the blockchain.
LG says it's going to keep adding NFTs from artists on a "monthly basis," and that you'll get to view any NFTs your purchase from the LG Art Lab app. Just like Samsung's doing with the NFTs on its TVs, it looks like LG is hoping users will display the NFTs on their TV when it's not in use (which sounds like a few extra bucks on my energy bill that I'd rather not spend).
