Lots of random little things around the Bitcoin world this week. The government of California threatened The Bitcoin Foundation with an odd cease-and-desist letter that alleged that the foundation does something it doesn’t do. BitAngels made its first investment into a startup. And, a pub in London has started accepting bitcoins for booze.

California takes a swipe at the Bitcoin Foundation

In what seems to be a case of confusing-the-issue, California’s Department of Financial Institutions sent a cease-and-desist order to The Bitcoin Foundation essentially demanding that the foundation stop doing something it doesn’t do: exchange bitcoins for money. In legal parlance, the letter accused The Bitcoin Foundation of engaging in “the business of money transmission without a license or proper authorization.”

The letter was revealed by the Bitcoin Foundation on Sunday and little further information has come from California as to exactly why the foundation is alleged to be involved in the transmission, exchange, or trade of bitcoins or money.

If any further information comes out of this exchange–and no doubt the foundation’s attorneys have responded to the CFDI and either the agency will rescind the order or clarify what makes the California government think the Bitcoin Foundation does something it doesn’t do.

BitAngels off to a great start by doubling membership and first investment

BitAngels announced that as of June 20th–its one-month anniversary of founding at the Bitcoin 2013 conference–that it had now grown to 120 members and $17.7 million in capital targeting Bitcoin investments. The Bitcoin Weekly column has mentioned BitAngels before citing the rapid growth of their funding to help incubate projects.

“The beauty of the BitAngels model is that we can rapidly evaluate and fund opportunities with global resources, distributed due-diligence databases and deep-pocket angels anxious to expand the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency infrastructure,” said BitAngels co-founder and Executive Director David A. Johnston.

The first investment is $100,000 into BlueSeed (www.blueseed.co), a seasteading venture incubating international companies, including Bitcoin companies who will not be subject to US regulation during their incubation offshore, in international waters just offshore from Silicon Valley.

Further press from BitAngels says that the incubator is looking into four more ventures currently and expects to fund one more in the next 30 days.

The British get everything nice, including a Bitcoin Pub

A pub in London has started accepting bitcoins for booze. Have BTC and desire a pint, head to The Pembury Tavern in east London–or one of its sister pubs in Cambridge, Norwich, or Peterborough. Business Insider has an excellent report about the ins and outs of a pub accepting bitcoin written up.

“I bought some in 2011 but there wasn’t really anything to do with them,” the pub group founder, Stephen Early, a former computer scientist told BI about his experience with Bitcoin. “So I did the equivalent of putting them in a drawer and forgetting about them.”

According to the article, the pub accepts the cryptocurrency via an application on their registers that displays a QR code. That QR code is used with the customer’s Bitcoin wallet, once the transaction is accepted, the sale is complete. It’s a real world example of how retail and service outlets could use bitcoins for product.