Vol. 1 · 27 Jul 2026Sourced · Neutral · Current

mainnetprotocol component

Simplex BFT

Tempo's Byzantine fault-tolerant consensus, implemented by Commonware.

Data completeness: 70%
Confidence: 85%
Sources: 1
Last reviewed: 7 Jun 2025

The take

What to know

Deterministic sub-second finality with an explicit safety-over-liveness stance: it halts rather than risk a re-org.

Best for

Payments needing settlement certainty (no re-orgs)

Watch out

Chain halts if >1/3 of validators are unavailable
Initial validator set is permissioned

The record

Key facts

Implemented by: Commonware· 90%§
Block time: ~600ms, VRF leader election, deterministic finality· 85%§
Liveness: Halts if >1/3 validators unavailable (safety over liveness)· 85%§

The graph

Connected entities

Tempo

The payments-first Layer 1 blockchain, incubated by Stripe and Paradigm.

layer-1paymentsstablecoin

Commonware

The BFT infrastructure powering Tempo's consensus.

consensusbftinfrastructure

Filed under

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