Stripe payment blockchain 'Tempo' opens public testnet… Mastercard, UBS participate

The blockchain Tempo (Tempo), led by payment company Stripe, opened a public testnet and is moving to expand global payment infrastructure. On the 10th (local time), according to Decrypt, Tempo, jointly designed by Stripe and Paradigm, has been built as a network optimized for payments and the use of stablecoins, and companies such as OpenAI, Shopify, and Visa participated in its technical direction from the early stages.

The Tempo team announced additional partners including Mastercard, UBS, and Klarna with the testnet release. In particular, Swedish fintech firm Klarna plans to launch the Tempo-based stablecoin 'KlarnaUSD' next year and is preparing for its introduction along with Tempo's mainnet schedule.

Matt Huang, project lead and co-founder of Paradigm, said, 'The Tempo testnet has reached a stage that anyone can access,' and 'We have been designing new infrastructure with partners experimenting with cross-border payments, tokenized deposits, and AI-based payment flows.' Tempo is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and has core structures such as dedicated block space optimized for payments and functions to maintain low-cost fees.

It is also designed so that network fees can be paid in stablecoins rather than volatile native tokens, increasing predictability in the payment process. Brian Hamilton, president of Coastal Bank in Washington state, said, 'Through collaboration with Tempo, we can experiment with and co-develop next-generation financial infrastructure,' and 'It is important to provide new capabilities across the fintech ecosystem beyond speed efficiency.'

Tempo offers a variety of payment scenarios as basic functions, including micropayments, global remittances, agent-based commerce, and tokenized deposits. It also includes a browser-based stablecoin issuance feature, increasing asset issuance accessibility for payment companies and financial institutions. Currently, the network is composed of four validators operated by the Tempo team, and it plans to expand external participants, including independent validators, at the mainnet stage.

Stripe is known to have raised US$500 million in October to develop Tempo. At the same time, Ethereum Foundation researcher Dankrad Feist joined as a technical advisor to support mainnet optimization. Stablecoin issuer Circle is also developing the payment-specialized blockchain Arc, and Visa, BlackRock, and Goldman Sachs are participating in its testnet.