Ripple adds XRP and RLUSD to Stripe and Tempo’s agent-payment ecosystem
- Ripple shipped version 1.1 of its XRP Ledger AI Starter Kit, adding support for the Stripe- and Tempo-backed Machine Payments Protocol and the Open Wallet Standard so AI agents can pay for online services in XRP and RLUSD.
- It matters to developers building agent-payment apps, who can now route payments over the XRP Ledger regardless of which standard they started with.
- The tools are still in beta with no paying customers are named, and Circle’s USDC still leads the agent-payment market.
Ripple has updated its XRP Ledger developer kit to support AI agents making payments for data, computing, and other online services in XRP and RLUSD via the Machine Payments Protocol co-authored by Stripe and payments blockchain Tempo and the Open Wallet settlement standard.
The update gives developers building agent-based services a simpler way to support XRP Ledger payments without having to choose a blockchain first and then work around its payment standard.
Additions to version 1.1 of the starter kit
Version 1.1 of the XRPL AI Starter Kit adds two external standards to the XRP Ledger. The first is the Machine Payments Protocol, or MPP, developed by Stripe and Tempo for machine-to-machine payments over HTTP. In addition, the kit will also support the Open Wallet Standard (OWS), which gives software a shared way to manage wallets across multiple blockchains.
RippleX head of product Jazzi Cooper said the aim is to make XRP and RLUSD, Ripple’s dollar-pegged stablecoin, available to developers building AI agent services.
The RippleX post also highlights two interesting additions, which include xrpl-up for local payment testing and a skill for automated trading on the XRPL decentralized exchange.
How MPP payments work on the ledger
MPP follows a simple payment flow that runs from a service responding to a request with an HTTP 402 status and a price to the agent approving the payment, and the service then delivering the requested data or service. There is no account or checkout screen in between.
According to the RippleX post, the kit offers two payment modes. The first handles one-off payments in XRP or ledger-issued tokens, with transactions settling in three to five seconds at sub-cent fees, while the second uses XRPL Payment Channels, where an AI agent funds a channel upfront, then sends signed off-chain vouchers as it continues using a service.
The provider can verify those vouchers without making a blockchain call and settle the accumulated balance in a single on-chain transaction. The dev blog post claims the vouchers can be signed at a rate of over 100,000 per second.
Ripple’s bet in a USDC-led market
Ripple previously added support for x402, an earlier web-payment standard, to the XRP ledger in June and has now integrated MPP alongside it. This approach is aimed at developers who may have chosen their payment standard before being certain on the blockchain to use. Platforming support for both of these standards gives Ripple the capacity to reach applications built by developers who chose their payment system before settling on the XRP Ledger.
Ripple still faces a herculean challenge in winning developers over. Circle’s USDC remains the default currency for agent payments, and it is unclear if supporting both standards will be enough to give Ripple a bigger share of the developer market pie.
The software is also still in beta, and Ripple has not named any commercial customers using the MPP integration or disclosed any specific payment volume gotten from it.
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Opeyemi Olanrewaju
Opeyemi specializes in creating and refining high-quality content focused on cryptocurrency, global financial markets and the economy. He graduated from the University of Ibadan with an MBBS degree. He has worked as Editor-in-Chief for his College’s editorial publication and previously at CFA. For over six years, he has helped safeguard uniqueness as news editor at Cryptopolitan.
