Why is [Timestamp] column in EF core backed by byte[] column instead of UInt64

Question

When using a timestamp column in Entity Framework it is backed by rowversion column type in SQL Server and represented as CLR's byte[] (according to the docs). The column has length of 8 bytes.

Why they decided to use byte[] instead of UInt64? It would hold the value just fine. Are there any non-obvious benefits of using byte[] or is it just for use of EF with other DB engines, which could implement rowversion-like column as different data type internally.

Answer 1

The purpose of the rowversion/timestamp field is that every time it updates, it is a new unique value. The fact that for some implementations it is a 'timestamp' is irrelevant.

According to this page, for MS-SQL it is an incrementing number, according to this page, for MySql it is a timestamp.

Therefore an array of 'bytes' makes the most sense compatibility wise.