Stripe Launches Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) — Open Standard for AI Agent Payments with Visa and Tempo Blockchain

Stripe has launched the Machine Payments Protocol (MPP), a major open standard designed to let AI agents autonomously transact on the internet. Co-authored with Tempo (a Stripe/Paradigm-backed blockchain), MPP provides a specification for agents and services to coordinate payments programmatically.

The protocol addresses a fundamental friction: current financial tools were built for humans, requiring agents to navigate account creation, pricing pages, subscription tiers, and billing flows that often need human intervention. MPP eliminates these steps by enabling programmatic payment coordination.

Key technical details:

• Stripe users can accept MPP payments in a few lines of code via the PaymentIntents API
• Supports both fiat (cards, BNPL via Shared Payment Tokens) and stablecoins
• Tempo blockchain launched its mainnet on March 18 as the payment-focused L1 infrastructure
• Visa contributed specifications for agent card/debit payments
• Already powering real businesses: Browserbase (headless browser sessions), PostalForm (physical mail), Prospect Butcher Co. (food orders)

Visa head of crypto Cuy Sheffield stated: "We look at MPP as another way that you can have a very clear, defined protocol around how an agent communicates with merchants."

Stripe positions MPP alongside its broader Agentic Commerce Suite, which includes the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), MCP integrations, and x402 payment support. The combination creates a comprehensive financial infrastructure layer for agent-to-agent and agent-to-business transactions.

This is significant because it marks the first time a major payment processor (Stripe) and a major card network (Visa) have jointly created infrastructure specifically designed for AI agent commerce. The open standard approach (published at mpp.dev) suggests an intent to become the industry default for machine payments.