The Tempo blockchain, backed by Stripe, has initiated its public test network as of Tuesday. This permissionless blockchain is set to feature an integrated decentralized exchange specifically optimized for stablecoins. Tempo has welcomed UBS, Mastercard, and Kalshi as "design partners" in its journey towards launch. This marks a significant advancement for Tempo, a much-anticipated layer 1 blockchain, as it moves closer to its official deployment.
Initially conceived as a payments-centric blockchain, Tempo is now a functional network undergoing testing by leading global companies, according to the company’s announcement. Supported by Stripe and venture capital firm Paradigm, Tempo drew considerable attention upon its initial reveal in September. This is largely due to Stripe’s status as a leading payment processor, which promises extensive distribution once Tempo officially launches, anticipated in 2026. As of September, Stripe was valued at $106 billion, making it the largest privately-held fintech company, according to FinTech Magazine. In 2024, Stripe processed $1.4 trillion in payment volume, representing about 1.3% of global GDP, with clients including major corporations like NVIDIA, PepsiCo, and Comcast.
Tempo has attracted notable figures from the crypto industry and academia, such as Dankrad Feist, a former Ethereum Foundation researcher, Liam Horne, former CEO of Optimism Labs, and Mallesh Pai, a professor from Rice University. Stripe CEO Patrick Collison expressed earlier this year on Hacker News his initial disappointment with the utility of crypto in payments over the past decade. However, his perspective shifted upon observing the tangible benefits businesses found in stablecoins. Collison noted these businesses utilize crypto for actual financial activities rather than speculative purposes.
Tempo aims to facilitate low-cost payment transactions, targeting fees as low as a tenth of a cent per transaction. It seeks to avoid the congestion issues common in general-purpose blockchains by reserving blockspace specifically for payments at the protocol level. This means payments will not compete with other types of blockchain traffic, such as NFT mints or high-frequency contract calls. Additionally, the blockchain's permissionless nature will include a built-in decentralized exchange optimized for stablecoins and tokenized deposits.
The Tempo client is open-source, enabling anyone to operate a node. Although the test network started with four company-operated validators, Tempo plans to expand its validator set to include its design partners before fully transitioning to a permissionless model. On Tuesday, Tempo announced the inclusion of UBS, Mastercard, and Kalshi as new design partners. These join an initial group of design partners, which includes notable names like Anthropic, Deutsche Bank, DoorDash, OpenAI, Revolut, Shopify, Standard Chartered, and Visa.