Stripe and Paradigm Unveil Tempo, a Blockchain Designed for Payments

Stripe and Paradigm Announce Tempo to Power Onchain Payments

Bitcoin is peer-to-peer digital cash, Ethereum is the world computer, and now Tempo, a new blockchain unveiled by payments giant Stripe and crypto venture capital firm Paradigm on Thursday, wants to be the blockchain for payments.

If you’ve never heard of Stripe, you’ve probably used it. The $91.5 billion payments firm processes more than 135 currencies across 51 countries and counting. Around 90% of U.S. adults have purchased from businesses that use Stripe, according to the company’s website.

Irish brothers John and Patrick Collison launched Stripe in 2010 after joining the 2009 cohort of San Francisco-based startup accelerator Y Combinator (YC). The duo quickly became one of YC’s most talked-about success stories. “Stripe is one of the most successful startups we’ve funded, and the problem they solved was an urgent one,” YC founder Paul Graham wrote in a 2013 essay. The company has the sixth-highest amount of capital raised in YC history, more than $1.6 billion, according to the accelerator’s website.

Paradigm was founded in 2018 by Sequoia veteran Matt Huang and Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam. The firm manages three funds, the most recent of which closed at $850 million in June 2024. Paradigm’s assets under management (AUM) appear to be somewhere in the region of $9-13 billion, according to past reports.

And now, with two prominent firms joining forces to create what they describe as “a payments-first blockchain,” their brainchild, Tempo, which is currently in testnet, may end up surpassing incumbents such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana, at least from a payments perspective.

“As stablecoins go mainstream, there’s a need for optimized infrastructure,” Huange wrote on X. “Tempo is purpose-built for stablecoins and real-world payments, born from Stripe’s experience in global payments and Paradigm’s expertise in crypto.”