title: What is the difference between bcpow and pow?
body: <p>Can someone explain to me if I should use bcpow() instead of pow() and why?</p>
  
  <p>I understand that not all installations of php have bcmath enabled. So if I write an open source project, and want to have as few dependencies/requirements as possible, I would rather use pow() in my code.</p>
  
  <p>But what are the downsides to using pow() over bcpow()?</p>