# Aztec vs Tempo

> Tempo is a public EVM Layer 1 for stablecoin payments with a validator set its team whitelists. Its privacy comes from Zones, private ledgers whose operator can read everything inside them. Aztec puts privacy in the protocol, where no operator can read a private transaction.

Canonical: https://aztec.network/compare/tempo  
Type: Comparison  
Reviewed: 30 October 2026  
Publisher: Aztec Foundation

## Side by side

| | Tempo | Aztec |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Is the network unstoppable? | **Whitelisted validators.** Mainnet since March 2026 with a permissioned validator set the Tempo team adds onchain, currently including MoneyGram, Stripe, Visa, and Zodia Custody. The network halts when more than a third of those validators go offline, so a minority of them can stop it. | **No one can stop it.** Permissionless sequencers and provers run the network. Upgrades follow public governance rules with a timelock. L2BEAT assesses the rollup at Stage 2. |
| Is there a privacy backdoor? | **Zone operator reads everything.** The Layer 1 is public. Inside a Zone, "the operator can read the whole ledger", and in a hosted Zone Tempo can too. Deposits and withdrawals, with their amounts and timing, stay public on Tempo. | **No backdoor.** Private functions execute on the user's device and the network verifies a proof. There is no network-wide decryption key, no validator that re-executes private inputs, and no co-signer. Public calls and their inputs are visible by design. |
| Do they have private smart contracts? | **Public Solidity, private ledgers.** Solidity contracts on the L1 run in public. A Zone moves tokens only through deposits and withdrawals and disables contract deployment. | **Private + public contracts.** Noir contracts combine private state and functions with public ones, and anyone can deploy them. Contracts compose on Aztec and reach Ethereum through L1/L2 messaging. |
| Who can build and participate? | **Permissioned to use.** Anyone can deploy on the L1. Running a validator requires the Tempo team to add you onchain, and creating a Zone is restricted to the factory owner. | **Permissionless to use, build, and operate.** Anyone can deploy contracts or participate as a sequencer or prover under the published protocol, staking, and hardware requirements. |
| Compliance approach | Built into the token and the account. Issuers set whitelist or blacklist policies on a token, accounts set receive policies, a blocked payment is held by Tempo for a named recovery authority, and Zones enforce transaction screening automatically. | Selective disclosure at the application and user level. An application decides which facts it proves or publishes, and a user can share their own viewing keys with whoever they choose. No protocol-wide audit key, screening gate, or operator sits in the path of a transaction. |

## What Tempo does well

Stablecoin payments at scale: fees paid in stablecoins, sub-second finality, Solidity tooling, and validators and issuers that payment businesses already know, including Stripe, Visa, MoneyGram, and Zodia Custody. Receive policies and token policies give issuers the controls regulated money needs.

**The difference.** Tempo privacy is a private ledger run by a business, which that business, and in a hosted Zone Tempo as well, can read in full. Aztec privacy holds against the operator as well as the public, and applies to contracts, not only to transfers.

## Sources

- [Tempo: FAQ](https://tempo.xyz/faq/)
- [Tempo: Zones](https://tempo.xyz/zones/)
- [Tempo docs: Zone privacy](https://tempo.xyz/developers/docs/zones/privacy)
- [Tempo docs: Zone architecture](https://tempo.xyz/developers/docs/protocol/zones/architecture)
- [Tempo docs: validator setup](https://tempo.xyz/developers/docs/guide/node/validator-setup)
- [Tempo docs: consensus and finality](https://tempo.xyz/developers/docs/protocol/blockspace/consensus)
- [Tempo docs: receive policies](https://tempo.xyz/developers/docs/accounts/policies/receive-policies)
- [Tempo docs: TIP-403 token policies](https://tempo.xyz/developers/docs/protocol/tip403/spec)
- [Aztec: private and public state](https://docs.aztec.network/developers/docs/foundational-topics/state_management)
- [Aztec: privacy considerations](https://docs.aztec.network/developers/docs/resources/considerations/privacy_considerations)
- [Aztec: governance voting](https://docs.aztec.network/participate/token/voting)
- [L2BEAT: Aztec Network](https://l2beat.com/scaling/projects/aztecnetwork)

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Markdown representation of https://aztec.network/compare/tempo. Published by Aztec Foundation.