The payments-focused L1 launches with a slew of fintech and TradFi partners, while MPP is aimed at enabling agentic commerce. 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. This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.