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+---
+order: 2
+---
+# Block Time
+
+Tendermint provides a deterministic, Byzantine fault-tolerant, source of time,
+with bounded relation with the real time.
+
+Time in Tendermint is defined by the `Time` field present in the header of
+committed blocks, which satisfies the following properties:
+
+- **Monotonicity**: `Time` is monotonically increasing. That is,
+  given a header `H1` of a block at height `h1`
+  and a header `H2` of a block at height `h2 > h1`,
+  it is guaranteed that `H1.Time < H2.Time`.
+
+- **Time-validity**: the `Time` of a block was considered valid, according with the
+  [timely][pbts_timely] predicate, by at least one correct validator. This
+  means that correct validators have attested that the block `Time` is compatible
+  with the real time at which the block was produced.
+
+The evaluation of the `timely` predicates involves comparing the `Time`
+assigned to the block by its proposer with the local time at which a validator
+receives the proposed block.
+If the block Time and the block receive time are within the same *time window*,
+the validator accepts the proposed block; otherwise, the block is rejected.
+The *time window* boundaries are defined by two [consensus parameters][parameters]:
+
+- `Precision`: the acceptable upper-bound of clock drift among all the
+  validators on a Tendermint network. More precisely, the maximum acceptable
+  difference on the time values simultaneous read by any two correct validators
+  from their local clocks.
+
+- `MessageDelay`: the maximum acceptable end-to-end delay for delivering a
+  `Proposal` message to all correct validators.
+  This is a fixed-size message broadcast by the proposer of block that
+  includes the proposed block unique `BlockID` and `Time`.
+
+Validators are therefore assumed to be equipped with **synchronized clocks**.
+The `Precision` parameter defines the worst-case precision achieved by the
+adopted clock synchronization mechanism.
+For the sake of time validity, this parameter essentially restricts how much
+"in the future" a block Time can be, while the `MessageDelay` parameter mainly
+restricts how much "in the past" a block Time can be.
+
+For additional information on how block Times are produced and validated,
+refer to the Proposer-Based TimeStamps (PBTS) [spec][pbts].
+
+[pbts]: ./proposer-based-timestamp/README.md
+[pbts_timely]: ./proposer-based-timestamp/pbts-sysmodel_002_draft.md#pbts-timely0
+[parameters]: ../abci/apps.md#consensus-parameters