Payments-focused blockchain Tempo, developed by Stripe and Paradigm, announced the launch of its mainnet today, March 18. Also today, Stripe and Tempo revealed a new open standard for AI agent payments, Machine Payments Protocol (MPP), per a separate X post.
Today's mainnet launch opens public RPC endpoints to developers. The headline addition is the MPP,an open, rail-agnostic standard for autonomous agent-to-service payments. MPP introduces a "sessions" primitive that lets agents authorize a spending limit upfront and stream micropayments continuously without an on-chain transaction per interaction.
Stripe, Visa, and Lightspark have already extended MPP to support cards, wallets, and Bitcoin Lightning payments respectively. A payments directory launching alongside mainnet lists over 100 compatible services.
Unveiled by Stripe and crypto VC Paradigm last September, Tempo was purpose-built as settlement infrastructure for high-volume stablecoin payments — emphasizing predictable low fees, instant finality, and throughput suited to commercial-scale workloads. The project launched its public testnet in December, as The Defiant reported at the time.
Tempo's backers are pitching the chain as infrastructure for both emerging agentic commerce and more traditional payment flows including cross-border remittances, global payouts, and tokenized deposits. Partners named include Anthropic, OpenAI, DoorDash, Mastercard, Nubank, Revolut, Shopify, and Standard Chartered.
The project hasn't been without skeptics in the crypto-native community — crypto and web3 researchers have raised questions about the trade-offs of corporate-backed chains like Tempo, particularly around decentralization and permissioning.
Tempo's mainnet launch arrives amid growing institutional momentum around stablecoin infrastructure, including Klarna's recent debut of its own stablecoin as it pushes deeper into on-chain payments.
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