The simplest explanation is that ArangoDB uses JSON as dataformat to the outside world. JSON doesn't support these types like arbitrary exact decimal, or timest

The simplest explanation is that ArangoDB uses JSON as dataformat to the outside world. JSON doesn't support these types like arbitrary exact decimal, or timestamps. Despite ArangoDB using VelocyPack internally, which is capabable of much more than JSON, a user will import JSON and get JSON back. You can of course use datetime https://docs.arangodb.com/3.3/AQL/Functions/Date.html https://docs.arangodb.com/3.3/AQL/Functions/Date.html and decimals with a precision of 10E38 in ArangoDB but it is not as precise as in a relational database. If we want to be as precise as a relational DB, then we would have to say goodbye to JSON