The Stripe-backed Tempo blockchain has gained a pair of heavyweight validators in Visa (V) and Zodia Custody, the majority-owned crypto custodian of Standard Chartered (STAN).
Alongside Stripe, Visa and Zodia will participate in the Tempo blockchain by maintaining network security and verifying transactions.
Visa, a long-time collaborator of the payment service provider, configured and managed the validator node entirely in-house, after six months of joint work with Tempo’s engineering team to integrate the cards giant’s infrastructure directly into the blockchain, according to a press release.
Visa plans to run nodes on other blockchains after Tempo integration. The card network previously announced that it would join the Canton network, where it is planned to serve as a “super validator.”
For the past seven years or so, Visa’s blockchain engineers have been “living and breathing stablecoins,” said Visa crypto team leader Cuy Sheffield. The focus now is on supporting the evolution of new payment flows such as machine-to-machine commerce using AI agents, he added.
“We were an early design partner, working closely with the Tempo team, looking to design infrastructure that could support many types of new payment flows, and in particular agentic payment flows,” Sheffield said in an interview with CoinDesk.
Tempo, which is also backed by crypto investment firm Paradigm, went live last month with Machine Payments Protocol (MPP), a protocol that allows software and AI agents to pay for services autonomously.
“Visa is an important part of the MPP,” Sheffield said. “We added the MPP card specifications. We announced Visa CLI, which is a wallet built on top of MPP where agents can use a Visa card to be able to spend. So we’ve been deeply involved in Tempo and the MPP ecosystem, and now we manage the underlying infrastructure on Tempo.”
There is no doubt about Stripe’s conviction when it comes to assembling an end-to-end blockchain-based system for stable payments. But with hindsight, some might question the open and decentralized nature of such a system.
Sheffield, in response, said Visa was simply being pragmatic and looking for products that could drive payment volume.
“Our view has always been that decentralization is a spectrum,” Sheffield said. “There are many use cases where decentralization for the sake of decentralization does not solve the problem. I think we are now entering a phase in the crypto industry where decentralization is not the main value-add. It’s about whether a new payment infrastructure is fast, efficient, programmable, and can outperform some existing payment infrastructure for certain use cases.”
Stripe entered the stablecoin industry when it acquired stablecoin specialist Bridge for $1.1 billion in 2024. Earlier this year, Mastercard made a similar move by purchasing stablecoin company BVNK for $1.8 billion.
When asked if Visa was considering offering its own stablecoin, Sheffield responded:
“It’s so early and the rules aren’t fully written yet. We’ve spent a lot of time with the OCC (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) and others,” he said. “I think Visa can play many different roles, but in everything we do, we want to make sure we do it in partnership with our customers and our network.”
UPDATE (April 14, 2:16 p.m. UTC): Rewrote title, first paragraph to include reference to Zodia Custody.
