The provided paper introduces the Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP), a novel approach to achieving decentralized agreement suitable for internet-level financial infrastructure. SCP utilizes federated Byzantine agreement (FBA), where individual nodes make trust decisions that collectively establish system-wide quorums, unlike traditional systems with fixed membership. This open membership design aims to lower barriers to entry and foster network growth, offering advantages over proof-of-work and traditional Byzantine agreement models by providing flexible trust and asymptotic security. The paper details the principles of FBA, including quorum slices and the importance of quorum intersection for safety, and then presents the mechanics of SCP's nomination and ballot protocols designed to ensure secure and live consensus despite potentially faulty participants.