do you think they could back up the nand chip and replace it with a read only nand chip with the same memory, and then try to unlock is as much as they want?
I don't know, but it's fairly pretty to find out. Just try it. I don't have the skills to desolder a surface mount chip but I personally know people who do. It would probably cost about $1000 to buy an iPhone and hire one of these people to do the experiment.
