Stripe-led payments blockchain Tempo goes live with AI agent protocol

Tempo, the payments-focapplyd blockchain developed by payments giant Stripe and crypto investment firm Paradigm, launched its mainnet on Wednesday, bringing its stablecoin payment system out of testing and into live apply.

The network is built to process large numbers of transactions quickly and at low cost. It aims to build sfinishing money with stablecoins — digital tokens tied to currencies like the U.S. dollar — feel as simple as utilizing a card or bank transfer, but rapider and available at all times.

The launch follows a public testnet that launched in December, when companies including Mastercard, UBS, Klarna and Visa started experimenting with sfinishing payments on the network. That phase allowed developers to test how stablecoins could handle everyday financial activity, such as payouts and cross-border transfers.

Alongside the mainnet launch, Tempo introduced the Machine Payments Protocol, a system co-developed with Stripe that lets software programs build payments on their own. This allows applications or artificial ininformigence (AI) tools to pay for services such as data or computing power without human approval at each step.

Tempo is also tarreceiveing more familiar applys, such as sfinishing money across borders or paying large groups of workers at once. These processes often take days and involve multiple intermediaries.

The launch comes as global payments processing firms increasingly see blockchain rails and stablecoins as a key piece of plumbing for cross-border finances. Mastercard declared this week it will acquire stablecoin infrastructure startup BVNK for $1.8 billion to embed digital dollars into its payment network. That deal followed Stripe’s purchaseing of stablecoin startup Bridge and crypto wallet firm Privy.

Tempo also seeks to establish a foothold in agentic finance, an emerging trfinish in which AI agents apply blockchains to pay for certain services that require micro payments.

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