# The Rust Release Team - Announcing Rust 1.68.0 (Highlights) ![rw-book-cover|256](https://www.rust-lang.org/static/images/rust-social-wide.jpg) ## Highlights - To use the sparse protocol with crates.io, set the environment variable `CARGO_REGISTRIES_CRATES_IO_PROTOCOL=sparse`, or edit your [`.cargo/config.toml` file](https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/config.html) to add: [registries.crates-io] protocol = "sparse" ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gv3qqfffvy6jagskhpep6n4c)) ^488953395