Why MCP Is the TCP/IP of AI Agents

TL;DR TCP/IP solved the problem of incompatible networks. MCP solves the problem of incompatible AI tools. Before MCP: every AI app reinvented tool calling from scratch. After MCP: build a tool once, every AI agent can use it. The parallel to TCP/IP reveals why MCP matters more than most developers realize. And why the monetization layer that sits on top of MCP is more valuable than people expect. In 1973, Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn published a paper describing a protocol for transmitting data between heterogeneous networks. The key insight wasn't technical — it was architectural. Instead of building a single universal network, they created a protocol that let any networks communicate. TCP/IP was boring. It didn't do anything interesting on its own. It just defined how packets moved from A to B, regardless of what kind of network A and B were. Fifty years later, that boring protocol underlies every text message, every video call, every purchase, every search, every AI API call. The Model C