Metronome aims to optimize for self-governance, reliability, and portability. Founded by a number of veterans in the space (e.g. Jeff Garzik, Matthew Roszak), Metronome is founded on three key design principles:

- Self-governance with no undue influence from founders after initial launch and public access — contract governance starts at launch.

- Reliability and predictability where issuance and supply are immutable

- Portability to enable maximum decentralization, even across different blockchains. The first 'chainhop' took place in summer 2019, between Ethereum and Ethereum Classic

Additionally, Metronome reportedly offers advanced payment features as programmable money.

- Mass pay: The ability to send MET to multiple addresses in a single transaction to save on transaction fees.

- Subscriptions: The ability to authorize a set amount of MET to move between two addresses on a recurring basis.