Ask HN: Do you think a new alternative to MCP would be useful?

5•empire23•13h ago

Hi everyone,

I've been wrestling with MCP, and keep finding the same weaknesses: - the middleware server feels completely unncessary and overly complex - it has too many security flaws due to what feels like a rushed out standard - it's just so poorly undocumented and confusing

I've been thinking of doing a new protocol, but am too aware of that ol' comic (https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/standards_2x.png)

Yet was curious to ask you guys - is there value in trying to build a new scalable, secure version of MCP?

Or should I just stick to the protocol that's currently popular?

Comments

muzani•8h ago

JS was designed in a few days. And many years later, people made proposals to it and improved it. A few like TS built on top of it.

Standards that are well designed end up like Java - still flawed and clunky. And built on top as well.

MCP wasn't designed by anyone omniscient. So if you found flaws with it, go ahead and propose something.

bjourne•32m ago

The proof of the pudding is in the eating. That is, if you can produce a working (free) implementation demonstrating the superiority of your protocol then there is huge value. If you can't there is no value.

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Comments

Google fails to dismiss wiretapping claims on SJ, settles with app users

What's your experience using Lynx (mobile framework)?

Ask HN: Does your on-call rotation suck? Can I join it?

Tell HN: HN is becoming too political

Ask HN: How did Soham Parekh get so many jobs?

Ask HN: Bug Bounty Dilemma – Take the $$ and Sign an NDA or Go Public?

Tell HN: I Lost Joy of Programming

Ask HN: Do you think a new alternative to MCP would be useful?

Ask HN: People who work different timezones than your company. How sched?

Ask HN: What are some cool or underrated tech companies based in Australia?

Pocket LLM Server Just Like a Pocket WiFi

Ask HN: How is the tech scene in LA?

Proposal: GUI-first, text-based mechanical CAD inspired by software engineering

Ask HN: What's the verdict on GPT wrapper companies these days?

Ask HN: Any resources for finding non-smart appliances?

Ask HN: Has anyone else learned English just by reading tech posts (like HN)?

Ask HN: Worth leaving position over push to adopt vibe coding?

Agentic terminology doesn't make any sense

Ask HN: What are some cool or underrated tech companies based in Canada?

N8n AI Workflows – 3,400 Workflows and an LLM Prototype

Ask HN: Advice for Starting a Hacker Space?

Ask HN: What's the greatest piece of non-dogfooded software?

Ask HN: What inspires you to persevere through adversity?

Ask HN: Is every company's internal wiki just broken by default?

Ask HN: Brick and Mortar Dev Agency

Ask HN: Do you use LLM for HTML translations?

Are there any noteworthy LinkedIn alternatives?

Ask HN: Took a break after burnout – what now?

Ask HN: How to generate product docs E2E?

Ask HN: What happened to W3C's PROV initiative to add provenance to the Web?