Stripe CEO Patrick Collison recently announced the launch of Tempo, the company’s own layer-1 blockchain designed to better handle the growing use of stablecoins and crypto transactions on its payment platform.
According to Collison, existing blockchains are not optimized for the scale of transactions Stripe processes, which peak at over 10,000 transactions per second (TPS). He compared this to Bitcoin’s 5 TPS and Ethereum’s roughly 20 TPS, noting newer networks like Solana reach about 1,000 TPS.
However, this reasoning drew mixed reactions within the crypto community. Joe Petrich, head of engineering at NFT platform Courtyard, stated there’s little appetite for yet another blockchain, emphasizing that “the problems are already solved for those committed to using blockchains.”
Solana’s TPS figures were also a topic of contention. Helius Labs CEO Mert Mumtaz challenged Collison’s claims, calling them “hilariously wrong” and pointing out that Solana’s actual TPS can exceed the cited numbers, with real data showing over 3,000 TPS.
On the other hand, some industry insiders see promise in Stripe’s approach. Steve Milton, CEO of Web3 wallet provider Fintopia, praised Tempo as a “game-changer” that could enable faster, cheaper, and seamless on-chain payments.
Critics also questioned why Stripe chose to build a separate layer-1 blockchain instead of leveraging existing layer-2 solutions. Ethereum Foundation’s Devansh Mehta and commentator Leo Lanza both suggested that building on Ethereum layer-2 could offer decentralization, network effects, and scalability without the need to create a new blockchain.
Collison responded that real-world financial applications benefit when fees are denominated in fiat currencies, which existing blockchains typically do not support as they denominate fees in native tokens.
The debate around Stripe’s Tempo blockchain highlights ongoing challenges in the crypto industry regarding scalability, decentralization, and practical adoption of blockchain technology for mainstream financial use.
