Tempo, the collaborative blockchain initiative by Stripe and Paradigm, has successfully launched its inaugural public testnet, representing a significant advancement towards the official layer-1 blockchain deployment.
In a Tuesday announcement from Tempo, the open-source testnet is now operational, allowing anyone to “run a node or sync the chain” to explore various features.
“The launch of today’s testnet initiates the next stage of Tempo’s evolution, emphasizing scalability, reliability, and integration experience. In the months ahead, we will onboard new infrastructure partners, introduce additional features and development tools, and rigorously test throughput under actual payment pressures,” Tempo stated.
The announcement outlined six key features currently available on the network, which include: dedicated payment lanes, stablecoin-native gas, integrated stable asset decentralized exchange, payments and transfers metadata, rapid deterministic finality, and contemporary wallet signing methods.
“Tempo is designed to offer instant, deterministic settlement, reliable low fees, and a stablecoin-native experience, characteristics that many general-purpose blockchains still find challenging to provide for financial applications,” Tempo remarked.
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In an X post following the launch, Paradigm’s general partner and chief technology officer, Georgios Konstantopoulos, highlighted a feature that allows Tempo testnet users to create stablecoins directly from their browsers.
Stablecoins generated on the network will be based on Tempo’s TIP-20 token standard. However, the precise liquidity and collateral requirements for the actual blockchain launch are not clearly specified in the testnet documentation.
Tempo shows strong momentum as design partners grow
The testnet launch follows four months after payments leader Stripe and crypto venture capital firm Paradigm introduced Tempo, and three months after Tempo secured $500 million at a $5 billion valuation. The project commenced with collaborations from major design partners, including OpenAI, Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered, and Shopify.
In its latest update, Tempo announced several new design partners, comprising prominent entities such as Mastercard, UBS, Kalshi, and Klarna.
Late last month, Klarna, the EU-licensed buy-now-pay-later service, launched a USD-pegged stablecoin on Tempo, marking its status as the first digital bank on the network to do so.
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