Universal Commerce Protocol

The Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) is an open standard that lets different participants in commerce transactions interoperate, with support for checkout, identity linking, order tracking, and secure payment token exchange (Stripe is a member of the UCP Tech Council). See ucp.dev for the full specification.

UCP defines composable building blocks for commerce:

• Checkout: Create and manage checkout flows including cart management, tax calculation, and payment, with or without human intervention.
• Identity linking: OAuth 2.0 based authorization lets platforms act on a buyers behalf.
• Order: Monitor the status of shipping, delivery, and returns with webhook-based lifecycle updates.
• Payment token exchange: Platforms, businesses, and credential providers can securely exchange payment tokens and credentials.

Stripe payment handlers for UCP

UCP payment handlers define how payment instruments are acquired, exchanged, and processed between all participants in a transaction.

The Stripe Payments handler provides a unified interface for all Stripe payment methods through credential tokenization.