The latter. Such as big.js (not an endorsement, my understanding is too weak for that). Just about every practically used programming environment from every

The latter. Such as big.js (not an endorsement, my understanding is too weak for that). Just about every practically used programming environment from every walk of life has such a thing in the standard library, and I suppose they are there for good reasons. However, the fact is that Javascript doesn't have one, so one will have to weigh dependencies into their decision. Go - math/big Java - BigDecimal Python - decimal Ruby - BigDecimal PostgreSQL - numeric Interesting mention: decimal in C#, deemed sufficient for monetary calculations at 128 bits of precision. Another interesting mention: Oracle, which in my understanding handles just about all its numbers this way, by default. This might tell you something about their early customer base.