Kamala Harris can rebuild the crypto bridges burned by Biden—but time is of the essence

After President Biden withdrew from the presidential race, the entire election campaign was restarted last week. Vice President Harris, who was endorsed by President Biden as the Democratic presidential candidate, has signaled that change is underway in important policy areas such as national security and antitrust. She also has the chance to change the party’s position on crypto regulation, which has become surprisingly partisan in recent months.

We suggest that the Vice President should see crypto as another area ripe for a Democratic Party reboot. He cannot go back to the Biden Administration’s approach to crypto, as he made the central theme of his campaign “we will not go back.”

For the past two years, the Biden Administration has alternated between ignoring crypto and running a fire-and-brimstone campaign of maximum hostility. Neither stance made much sense when you consider that nearly 20% of registered voters and nearly a third of all voters of color own crypto. It makes even less sense now that Donald Trump and the Republican Party have made crypto part of their official party platform. At this point, the Biden Administration’s approach to crypto is becoming an exercise in political self-harm.

Changing course on crypto doesn’t take a Herculean effort. Learn from us. We’re both progressive Democrats with years of experience in the crypto, government, and nonprofit sectors, and here are a few easy steps Vice President Harris can take to make a crypto reset part of her campaign.

First, take the industry seriously. In the recent past, pro-Democrat commentators and even Biden Administration regulators have expressed a very confident view that crypto will disappear in a few months. This is like yelling at the sun not to rise in the morning. Instead of retreating into such self-deception, the Harris campaign should take the simple step of acknowledging that crypto will continue to exist and creating policies that reflect that.

Part of this should include Vice President Harris encouraging future Administration and campaign staff to learn about crypto: Start a crypto advisory board and hold a roundtable with crypto executives and regular users during the campaign. Better yet, download a wallet and play around with the technology for first-hand experience! When it comes to crypto, using it is the fastest way to understand it.

Second, commit to working with the industry. The growth of this industry in the US is constrained by a lack of regulatory clarity, and many industry players are struggling to get within the regulatory framework. Count us in! But do so in a way that acknowledges both the unique challenges and opportunities of crypto. Vice President Harris should pledge to appoint new regulators at institutions like the SEC who are not dismissive of crypto and actually know something about it. (Teaching as an assistant professor without downloading a crypto wallet is not a real specialty.) Rhetoric is also important; the current Administration’s often dismissive and even mocking tone on crypto is (or should be) not in line with public duty. Simply put, campaign for the presidency to end the campaign against crypto.

The story continues

Third, embrace nuance. Recognize that crypto does not fit neatly into existing regulatory or legal boundaries and must be treated with care. Efforts to squeeze crypto into existing securities, banking, or commodity regulatory regimes have all failed. Other countries and jurisdictions, including the EU, the UK, and Japan, have made progress in recognizing that crypto is a truly unique technology that requires unique regulation. A Harris Administration that begins with the campaign should be the first American presidency to accept this global wisdom. Also, understand that crypto is not just financial technology. From decentralized social media to decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) and even intersections with AI and computing, crypto is much more than just a financial instrument. Therefore, crypto regulation needs to embrace this diversity of uses and not just squeeze it into a financial regulatory box.

Finally, champion crypto’s unabashedly pro-American influence. Keeping the industry in America is critical to national security and dollar dominance. America has been the home of great technological innovation since Fulton blew his boat up the Hudson River, and it is critical that America continues to be the heart of crypto innovation. Don’t adopt the government’s approach to the semiconductor industry that we have struggled to fix in recent years. It is always easier to keep an industry alive in America than to revive it from the dead.

The Democrats’ new standard-bearer has a chance to rebrand the party as pro-innovation, pro-consumer, and pro-tech. It would do much to make the case that crypto is a key issue in the campaign, in ways outlined above or elsewhere. Vice President Harris, all eyes—laser or not—are on you. This is your chance to show once and for all that tech is not partisan, despite some trying to portray it that way, and to rekindle the long-standing ties between Democrats and tech in the critical weeks before we all vote. This is your chance to forge a new path toward a brighter future.

Sheila Warren is CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation and Justin Slaughter is director of policy at Paradigm. The views expressed in Fortune.com comment pieces are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views and beliefs of Fortune.

This story was first published on Fortune.com