LG Electronics Building Arbitrum-Based Blockchain for Ad Sales

The South Korean consumer electronics maker told Sandmark on 12 Jun that the report is accurate, though it has not issued a press release or additional public details.

Arbitrum-powered ad platform

The platform is being built as a Layer-2 network – a scaling solution that processes transactions off Ethereum’s main chain before settling them onchain to reduce costs. It uses Arbitrum’s (ARB) technology stack, developed by Offchain Labs, and is designed to function as a shared inventory database for advertisers and publishers, with viewer interactions recorded directly onchain.

A pilot is already running with an unnamed Japanese advertising agency, and LG plans to explore a commercial rollout later this year, Fortune reported.

Samuel Byungsun Park, head of LG’s blockchain research department, was quoted as saying the company is assessing "whether this approach can deliver meaningful value to advertisers, publishers and audiences."

Offchain Labs questions broader applicability

Offchain Labs co-founder Steven Goldfeder told Fortune that the platform could automate parts of ad market operations that currently require manual processes. However, he noted that building a custom blockchain is not the right approach for most companies and indicated that LG’s specific use case was an exception.

LG’s prior blockchain work

LG is not new to blockchain. Its sister company, LG CNS, launched an enterprise blockchain platform called Monachain in 2018. The service is now offered on a subscription basis to financial and education clients in South Korea, alongside a decentralized identity solution called Tid.

The project follows other corporate blockchain initiatives, including Stripe’s Tempo, Circle’s Arc, Robinhood’s equities chain and J.P. Morgan’s private ledger.