Stripe’s Tempo Chain and the Return of Enterprise Blockchains

The Breakdown

Blockworks

Investing, Business

4.8 • 806 Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2025

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Stripe has unveiled Tempo, a new blockchain built for high-throughput stablecoin payments, developed with Paradigm and backed by partners like Visa, Shopify, and Anthropic. The launch has set off a firestorm—Ethereum advocates bristle at yet another corporate L1, critics call it a VC chain, and skeptics question whether credible neutrality is even possible under Stripe’s leadership. Is Tempo the next Visa for stablecoins, or just the ghost of Libra reborn? Today’s Breakdown explores the clash between decentralization ideals and the pragmatic rise of enterprise blockchains. Enjoying this content? SUBSCRIBE to the Podcast: https://pod.link/1438693620 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBreakdownBW Subscribe to the newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://blockworks.co/newsletter/thebreakdown⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Join the discussion: https://discord.gg/VrKRrfKCz8 Follow on Twitter: NLW: https://twitter.com/nlw Breakdown: https://twitter.com/BreakdownBW

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW.
0:09.2	It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world.
0:18.3	What's going on, guys? It is Monday, September 8th. And today we are talking about enterprise
0:23.9	blockchains. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying the breakdown, please go
0:28.3	subscribe to it, give it a rating, give it a review, or if you want to dive deeper into the conversation,
0:32.3	come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show notes or go to bit.ly.ly
0:36.2	slash breakdown. Well, friends, we are firmly link in the show notes or go to bit.ly slash breakdown pod.
0:44.4	Well, friends, we are firmly back in the era of enterprise blockchains, thanks to the Genius Act.
0:48.3	While there have been a number of rival stablecoin chains announced in recent months,
0:51.1	none have gathered as much controversy as Stripes.
0:56.5	On Thursday, CEO Patrick Collison announced the new Tempo blockchain writing, At Stripe, we care about high throughput, low latency payments use cases.
1:01.1	As the use of stable coins in crypto more broadly grows across Stripe, Bridge, and Privy,
1:05.3	we found that existing blockchains are not optimized for them.
1:08.4	He commented that Bitcoin, Ethereum, Base, and Solana are all incapable of
1:11.7	the 10,000 transactions per minute that Stripe needs to clear. So Stripe have incubated Tempo
1:16.5	as a new layer one in partnership with Paradigm Ventures. Collison continued, Tempo is an independent
1:21.9	company with Stripe and Paradigm as the first investors. He listed a series of initial design
1:26.7	partners including Anthropic, OpenAI,
1:28.7	DoorDash, Shopify, Revolut, Visa, and several major banks. Colison added,
1:33.3	We will start with an independent and diverse validator set and plan to move towards
1:36.6	permissionless validation. Tempo will have a built-in stable coin AMM to enable platform
1:41.2	neutrality with respect to different stable coins, and Stripe itself will,
	...

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