Stripe Launches L1 Blockchain: Tempo • Hacker News Board

Re: Stripe Launches L1 Blockchain: Tempo

#121

Post by gmd63 » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 6:15 PM UTC

The sad irony is that blockchain will do more to promote dictatorship as a superior form of government around the world than any other technology.

Blockchain's primary usefulness has been to evade regulations, and due to the rapidly changing nature of the technology, representative democracies with legitimate legal institutions have lagged behind when it comes to regulating it.

The country that wins (prevents fraudsters and scammers who exploit crypto) will be a dictatorship solely because a dictatorship is the only form of government fast enough to either rein in lawless cryptofinance, or exploit it maximally.

When enough actual value creating people who bought in to the libertarian crypto fantasy finally realize that they're slaving away to make ends meet in an economy that enshrines meme coin shills and folks who use crypto to evade the law, it will have been too late.

Re: Stripe Launches L1 Blockchain: Tempo

#122

Post by mikimike » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 6:15 PM UTC

antirez wrote: post #107

pc wrote: post #46

There are lots of crypto skeptics on HN (and we ourselves were disappointed with crypto's payments utility for much of the past decade), so it might be interesting to share what changed our mind over the past couple of years: we started to notice a lot of real-world businesses finding utility in stablecoins. For example, Bridge (a stablecoin orchestration platform that Stripe acquired) is used by SpaceX for managing…

The problem with all that, is the fact it remains possible to create a protocol with N big institutions (governments and large tech companies, big non profit organizations and so forth) signing every block, to create a collaborative system that is perfectly suited for the same task. The system can make progresses as long a given fractions of the participants is available and so forth, there are a number of well known…

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Re: Stripe Launches L1 Blockchain: Tempo

#123

Post by ixtli » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 6:17 PM UTC

why can i do 3-axis orbit control on the animation on the right lmao

Re: Stripe Launches L1 Blockchain: Tempo

#124

Post by ixtli » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 6:17 PM UTC

javier123454321 wrote: post #27

asdev wrote: post #17

I'm trying to figure out how this is decentralized? "A diverse group of entities" will run validator nodes. This sounds like it's just a Solana clone then.

It's just an attempt at obfuscating the governance for non-technical regulators to think it's beyond the control of stripe. It's the game that all these L1s are doing, participating in the minimum amount of decentralized theater in order to evade regulations.

very well put. its been the game the whole time.

Re: Stripe Launches L1 Blockchain: Tempo

#125

Post by jrm4 » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 6:18 PM UTC

Ah the layers.

Okay, so one: Obviously pointless from a tech POV. There is nothing that a Stripe controlled blockchain could offer that a database could not.

But then, why? Sadly, as someone who does like the ideals of true cryptocurrency, yet another way to make sure "real" crypto doesn't happen, much like what is happening to BTC.

Here's hoping (yeah, it's a long shot) people see through all of this and maybe, MAYBE, get into the actual ideals of cryptocurrency again.

Re: Stripe Launches L1 Blockchain: Tempo

#126

Post by jcfrei » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 6:18 PM UTC

sroussey wrote: post #111

wmf wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The situation has changed. The US is now leaning pro-crypto and they're also for sale.

Other countries have controls on currency movements inside and outside their borders.

Blockchains (due to constantly changing validators, nodes, etc.) are much harder to shut down than some dedicated service. I think the current administration understands that loose stablecoin regulation further cements US dollar hegemony, curtails other countries attempts to deprive their citizens of payment and savings alternatives and creates more demand for US treasuries (because that's where stablecoin reserves end up). It's a win-win for the US government and bad for governments with a track record of poor fiscal and monetary policy.

Re: Stripe Launches L1 Blockchain: Tempo

#127

Post by Nextgrid » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 6:18 PM UTC

ycombinatrix wrote: post #117

jstummbillig wrote: post #47

Unironically excited to learn: Why is this a blockchain? Why could stripe not just do this (maybe better) without the blockchain bit? I am actually optimistic that, finally, there could be a convincing answer, because stripe does not strike me as the type of company that would do this without a very good reason. (I am slightly less optimistic, because the page itself does not offer an answer to this question, and ins…

Maybe cheaper for Stripe, since they are offloading their compute to customers? I don't really get the draw either - what is the point of having a distributed blockchain if it is controlled by a single entity?

Despite the crypto hype massively dying down there's still a ton of idiots and grifters believing in it in big corps (including banks). Stripe could be targeting that and believes they'd be able to extract more money out of those idiots than what it costs to run this blockchain. This could work as long as they're careful enough not to get high on their own supply.

Re: Stripe Launches L1 Blockchain: Tempo

#128

Post by wslh » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 6:19 PM UTC

antirez wrote: post #107

pc wrote: post #46

There are lots of crypto skeptics on HN (and we ourselves were disappointed with crypto's payments utility for much of the past decade), so it might be interesting to share what changed our mind over the past couple of years: we started to notice a lot of real-world businesses finding utility in stablecoins. For example, Bridge (a stablecoin orchestration platform that Stripe acquired) is used by SpaceX for managing…

The problem with all that, is the fact it remains possible to create a protocol with N big institutions (governments and large tech companies, big non profit organizations and so forth) signing every block, to create a collaborative system that is perfectly suited for the same task. The system can make progresses as long a given fractions of the participants is available and so forth, there are a number of well known…

I wrote exactly a whitepaper about that, and ironically named it roughchain [1].

[1] https://docs.google.com/document/d/1L0Me9si4iMclOq8n-oG2yNQf...

Re: Stripe Launches L1 Blockchain: Tempo

#129

Post by bflesch » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 6:19 PM UTC

bgwalter wrote: post #88

bflesch wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's crazy that after all this time Tether is still a thing.

It has a certain utility and powerful friends: https://www.ft.com/content/b3c5b67d-1df8-4417-8dd5-2c86d76d6...

I can only see the title because I don't have FT subscription but I'm thankful for FT shielding me from more bad news. Ignorance is bliss ;)

Re: Stripe Launches L1 Blockchain: Tempo

#130

Post by andruby » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 6:19 PM UTC

abeppu wrote: post #44

So like 11 years ago, Stripe made investments into Stellar, which was supposed to be a payment network that would facilitate transactions into existing currencies. I think that hasn't really gone where it was hoped? https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/stripe-takes-...

Thanks for calling that out. I was surprised there was zero mention of Stellar.

The reason Stellar was appealing was because Stripe invested into it. I wonder if Tempo is using a similar consensus mechanism as Stellar (and/or Ripple)