diff --git a/.cargo/config.toml b/.cargo/config.toml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e724ea0856
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.cargo/config.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+[env]
+RUST_BACKTRACE = "1"
diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 5a71d41af9..e551e74611 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -64,13 +64,11 @@ jobs:
       - name: Run tests
         run: >
           cargo test
-          --release
           --workspace
           ${{ steps.prepare.outputs.feature-flags }}
       - name: Run slow tests
         run: >
           cargo test
-          --release
           --workspace
           ${{ steps.prepare.outputs.feature-flags }}
           --features expensive-tests
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index cd8e4b1f6f..eb5a316cbd 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,2 +1 @@
 target
-.cargo
diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
deleted file mode 100644
index 001f415bb4..0000000000
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,66 +0,0 @@
-
-# /************************************************************************
- #  File: .gitlab-ci.yml
- #  Author: mdr0id
- #  Date: 9/10/2018
- #  Description:  Used to setup runners/jobs for librustzcash
- #  Usage: Commit source and the pipeline will trigger the according jobs.
- #         For now the build and test are done in the same jobs.
- #
- #  Known bugs/missing features:
- #
- # ************************************************************************/
-  
-stages:
-  - build
-  - test
-  - deploy
-
-rust-latest:
-  stage: build
-  image: rust:latest
-  script:
-    - cargo --verbose --version
-    - time cargo build --verbose
-
-rust-nightly:
-  stage: build
-  image: rustlang/rust:nightly
-  script:
-    - cargo --verbose --version
-    - cargo build --verbose
-  allow_failure: true
-
-librustzcash-test-latest:
-  stage: test
-  image: rust:latest
-  script:
-    - cargo --verbose --version
-    - time cargo test --release --verbose
-
-librustzcash-test-rust-nightly:
-  stage: test
-  image: rustlang/rust:nightly
-  script:
-    - cargo --verbose --version
-    - cargo test --release --verbose
-  allow_failure: true
-
-#used to manually deploy a given release
-librustzcash-rust-rc:
-  stage: deploy
-  image: rust:latest
-  script:
-    - cargo --verbose --version
-    - time cargo build --release --verbose
-  when: manual
-
-#used to manually deploy a given release
-librustzcash-rust-nightly-rc:
-  stage: deploy
-  image: rustlang/rust:nightly
-  script:
-    - cargo --verbose --version
-    - cargo build --release --verbose
-  allow_failure: true
-  when: manual
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 78468956fc..f53945e620 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -162,5 +162,22 @@ lto = true
 panic = 'abort'
 codegen-units = 1
 
+[profile.test]
+# Since we have many computationally expensive tests, this changes the test profile to
+# compile with optimizations by default, but keep full debug info.
+#
+# This differs from the release profile in the following ways:
+# - it does not set `lto = true`, which increases compile times without substantially
+#   speeding up tests;
+# - it does not set `codegen-units = 1`, which increases compile times and is only
+#   useful to improve determinism of release builds;
+# - it does not set `panic = 'abort'`, which is in any case ignored for tests.
+#
+# To get results as close as possible to a release build, use `cargo test --release`.
+# To speed up compilation and avoid optimizations potentially resulting in lower-quality
+# debug info, use `cargo test --profile=dev`.
+opt-level = 3
+debug = true
+
 [workspace.lints.rust]
 unexpected_cfgs = { level = "warn", check-cfg = ['cfg(zcash_unstable, values("zfuture"))'] }