Samsung details how its TVs will become NFT gateways

Don’t mind me, just enjoying this NFT in my living room. | Image: Samsung

Samsung is making good on its promise from CES 2022 to bring NFTs to its TVs, by announcing a partnership with NFT auction site Nifty Gateway. In a press release, Nifty Gateway says that it’s “now integrated with Samsung’s NFT platform,” letting you “browse, display, and interact with NFTs” on the company’s “2022 premium TV product lines such as QLED and Neo QLED TV.” Nifty Gateway will also have an app on Samsung’s The Frame and Micro LED TVs.

Basically, you’ll be able to display NFTs on your Samsung TV. And maybe even buy or sell them, according to Decrypt, though it’s worth noting that Nifty Gateway is significantly more strict about who can sell artwork on its platform than OpenSea, the NFT marketplace most people will be familiar with. (Also, I don’t think I’d want to buy something much more expensive than a movie rental using a remote control, but maybe that’s just me.)

A Samsung presentation where it goes into some detail on the Nifty Gateway integration.

In an announcement stream, Samsung reiterated that its TVs will “optimize the settings for a faithful rendering of the artist’s intention” when you display an NFT. That’s good to hear — I’d be crushed if my Samsung TV displayed this NFT (created by one of the artists featured in Nifty Gateway’s press release) with anything but pixel-perfect accuracy.

Image: Pak on Nifty Gateway

Funnily enough, this image plays to the exact strengths of a QD-OLED display, though Samsung hasn’t specifically said whether those TVs will get Nifty Gateway integration.

Nifty Gateway’s integration will be part of Samsung’s Smart Hub, and it seems like Samsung’s intent is for you to display NFTs as ambient artwork. So say you’re watching a movie, like The Social Network, but decide to turn it off because you’re just so upset at seeing Mark Zuckerberg be mean to Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. Your TV would then go into Ambient Mode, and display artwork from your curated gallery — which you could fill up with NFTs from Nifty Gateway… a platform owned by the Winklevoss twins. Does that basically make Samsung’s NFT integration a fancy screensaver? No, of course not. It makes it the future.