The fintech giant Stripe along with Tempo, a blockchain startup incubated by the payments company as well as the venture firm Paradigm, launched a new payments protocol on Wednesday to make it easier for AI actors to send and receive money. Dubbed the “Machine Payments Protocol,” the open-source network supports payments in both fiat and cryptocurrency. The protocol is also compatible with Stripe’s existing AI payments infrastructure.
While the new AI payments network currently runs only on top of Tempo, which is also the name of the blockchain developed by the Stripe-backed startup, it’s designed to operate across multiple blockchains and payments rails, not just one. On Wednesday, Tempo simultaneously announced that its blockchain went live after operating in a test phase over the past three-and-a-half months.
