[gabereiser]

Stored in binary format, validation, more efficient due to non-cast, faster access due to non char*, being able to split the high-low, indexing and uniqueness at the byte level.

[dbbk]

What validation? "Postgres doesn’t care what you store in it as long as it has the correct length."

[gabereiser]

I mean, if(len(O) == 32) technically is a validation but you’re right, by default it just fits for size.