As you the reader probably know, the .io ccTLD is scheduled to be "phased out" in the next couple of years, whatever "phased out" means in this case. In the best case scenario, crates.io's continued existence would be dependent on IANA's gratuity; in the worst case, a sudden disappearance of crates.io would be disastrous for the entire Rust ecosystem. I think it's a risk that should be discussed and dealt with sooner than later.
What will happen to .io?
The answer is nobody knows. Historically, retired ccTLDs due to various geopolitical issues have mostly been removed. Here's a short list:
ccTLD
Country
Deprecation
Deletion
Note
.dd
East Germany
N/A
N/A
Never added to root NS
.cs
Czechoslovakia
1993
1995
.yu
Yugoslavia
2003
2010
.su
Soviet Union
1994
N/A
Retained by Russia
.tp
East Timor
2005
2015
It's arguable that .io is similar to .su in terms of its wide usage, so IANA may end up making an exception. Although it has to be said, IANA has attempted a move to remove .su entirely, and it took significant convincing by the Russian government for it to end up retained. .io may have a lot of corporate interest backing it too, but it's no nation state. Regardless, I think we can agree this is a significant risk, the outcome of which is beyond any of our control.
Turbo87
commented
18 hours ago 
cyqsimon
TLDR
As you the reader probably know, the
.ioccTLD is scheduled to be "phased out" in the next couple of years, whatever "phased out" means in this case. In the best case scenario,crates.io's continued existence would be dependent on IANA's gratuity; in the worst case, a sudden disappearance ofcrates.iowould be disastrous for the entire Rust ecosystem. I think it's a risk that should be discussed and dealt with sooner than later.What will happen to
.io?The answer is nobody knows. Historically, retired ccTLDs due to various geopolitical issues have mostly been removed. Here's a short list:
.dd.cs.yu.su.tpIt's arguable that
.iois similar to.suin terms of its wide usage, so IANA may end up making an exception. Although it has to be said, IANA has attempted a move to remove.suentirely, and it took significant convincing by the Russian government for it to end up retained..iomay have a lot of corporate interest backing it too, but it's no nation state. Regardless, I think we can agree this is a significant risk, the outcome of which is beyond any of our control.Impact to
crates.ioIt's likely that nothing horrible is going to happen in the near term, given how slowly such processes progress. However practical issues may start to arise. For example, when Brexit happened, British citizens were no longer able to register or renew their
.eudomains in a surprisingly short amount of time.And again, it's good to have some sort of long term plan regardless.