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That depends on how you define "protocol". ASCII dates from 1963, and that's still the baseline for text-based protocols.

FTP predates Ethernet, Token Ring and ARCNET. It predates TCP/IP. For an actual protocol, and not just a simple format specification like ASCII, it doesn't get older than that in current use.

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ASCII is a very obvious format. If you take the english alphabet and symbols, it fits almost perfectly in the first 7 bits. In 5th grade I tried encoding English in binary, and noticed how I accidentally reinvented ASCII.

I wouldn't say it's obvious. There's some careful decisions in the design that might not be obvious at first sight, such as having upper and lowercase characters be the same save for a single bit.

Or the numbers 0 to 9 at 48 to 57 (ie just mask out bits 4 and 5)

I see. I would retract my statement if HN let me edit.

Retract it at the bottom where it is least likely to be seen like we do in modern papers/news sites.

Encode English in Binary in 5th grade? You must be a smart cookie.

In 5th grade, I had the attention span of a fruit fly. Probably would have tried drawing phalluses in ascii if I had known about it.

Morse would be older.

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