UCP: Threat or Opportunity? My Take

I’ve been hearing a lot about UCP lately. This isn’t a technical deep dive—just my personal take. UCP stands for Universal Commerce Protocol.

I was reading something from Fiatjaf (the creator of Nostr) the other day. He explained what a protocol is using Android as an example: we all know what Android means, even though it runs on a bunch of different phones. Same with HTTP—it’s how we browse the web, no matter the device or browser.

UCP wants to be that, but for commerce. A common language so that humans, bots, agents—everyone—can understand each other when buying and selling.

So why does that matter now? Because AI changed the game.

Not long ago, if you wanted to buy something, you went to Google, searched, clicked. First we used just a couple of keywords. Then new generations came along and started typing whole sentences—three times as many words, sometimes like they were talking to a person. Search got more natural.

Now? People are going a step further. They skip Google altogether and ask ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude directly. The LLM searches for them and comes back with the answer—and where to buy. It’s no longer just a search box; it’s a conversation outside the traditional search ecosystem.

Fewer humans typing into Google, more prompt queries handled by AI agents. That changes everything, including SEO. The old game was figuring out how to rank on Google. The new game? Figuring out how to get recommended by an LLM. SEO isn’t about keywords anymore—it’s about being the answer the AI chooses.

So what if we had a protocol that everyone—humans, apps, bots—follows when it comes to commerce? That’s UCP. You ask your LLM for a product, it uses UCP to talk directly to merchants, and you get the right answer without the AI guessing what the merchant actually offers.

Some people see this as a threat. If your job is to rank on Google, I get it—change can feel like a threat. But others look at the same shift and see an opportunity. Einstein said it:

“In the midst of every crisis, lies great opportunity.”

There’s no right or wrong here; everyone has their own perspective, and that’s fine. What I like about UCP is that it’s an open set of rules, same for everyone, regardless of size. No single company gets to decide which page sits above another—everyone competes on equal footing.

And let’s be honest: the companies behind LLMs are already building their own rankings. They learn from every thumbs up, thumbs down, or link we click. You really think they’re asking Google what’s relevant? I don’t.

If UCP moves forward and doesn’t become just another AMP or Google Glass—an interesting idea that never really took off—then workflows will get much more direct. Intermediaries might get cut out, first-party services gain relevance, second-party ones have to up their game. It’ll be a different world.

For some, a threat. For me, an opportunity.

What do you think—threat or opportunity?