INDEPENDENT MERCHANT INTELLIGENCEPUBLIC BETA / SEPTEMBER 2026 BASELINE
Original research / Methodology first

September 2026: the research brief.

An evidence map of protocols, merchant infrastructure and shopping surfaces.

Research draft / No market-wide findings

Research question

What can a merchant establish from the first house evidence baseline?

Proposed method

Connect the eight protocol/framework records, platform capabilities and six shopping-surface records through their documented roles. Treat the September snapshot as a starting reference, not a census of adoption.

What this cannot establish

No market size, revenue forecast or deployment count is inferred. Versions or prices without sufficient current evidence remain Unknown.

Publication gate — Research HOLD

Validate source scope, check unresolved conflicts, document the sample and review conclusions against the underlying observations. A finding may be published only at the level its evidence supports. Incomplete studies remain drafts, noindex and outside the production sitemap.

Evidence ledger

Go to the source.

Primary documentation records what is publicly stated. It does not independently prove outcomes or your account’s eligibility.

  • ACP specification repository

    OpenAI / Stripe · official primary · Checked 2026-09-28

    Claim scope: Specification version and scope

    Latest stable shown as 2026-04-17; development branch is not a release.

    Source ID: acp-spec · Published: Not stated

  • UCP overview, 2026-08-25

    UCP · official primary · Checked 2026-09-28

    Claim scope: Discovery profile and commerce capabilities

    Version-pinned profile discovery; declared capabilities do not prove successful transactions.

    Source ID: ucp-spec · Published: Not stated

  • EMV Agentic Payments – Framework for Specifications v1.0 DRAFT

    EMVCo · official primary · Checked 2026-09-28

    Claim scope: Card-based agentic payment framework

    Draft, not a deployed payment rail or merchant certification.

    Source ID: emv-draft · Published: 2026-09-01

  • Holiday agentic commerce updates

    Google · official primary · Checked 2026-09-28

    Claim scope: UCP merchant integration hub and AI performance insights

    US rollout; later markets are future plans. Scale/performance statements are Google claims.

    Source ID: google-september · Published: 2026-09-16

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