It looks like the iPhone Dev-Team successfully dumped the seczone to do the brute force NCK cracking offline. It also looks like they were...

It looks like the iPhone Dev-Team successfully dumped the seczone to do the brute force NCK cracking offline. It also looks like they were able to capture the official NCK key from their carrier which they needed to “decode” the encryption algorithms that are used to generate the NCK key. That way, in combination with the NORID and CHIPID (and likely some additional information from the baseband), they will be able to generate the the NCK for every unique device out there.

deviceKey = SHA1_hash(norID+chipID)
nckKey = custom_hash(norID, chipID, SHA1_hash(NCK), deviceKey)
(the nckKey is the key that eventually gives the seczone (and so the baseband) the unlocked state).

Right now they are brute force cracking the encryption, which is going to take a few days (if not weeks). If they succeed, progress may be made fast. In the meanwhile they are working on a software unlock. Please note that both are not said to success.

3. Now what? Should I sell my locked iPhone 4?
I’d wait for more information on this “NCK-unlock”. Right now it’s pretty vague what timeframe we’re talking about. If the Dev-Team can pull this method off, it’d be very promising for those waiting for an unlock. If this method turns out to be not doable, I’d consider selling your iPhone 4 and save up for a factory unlocked iPhone 5.

4. Do you think there is ever going to be an unlock?
Of course. But that’s unlikely to be any time soon (with soon being <1 month).

5. If the NCK method fails, how long do you think it will take for the Dev-Team to unlock the iPhone 4 softwarematically?
No ETA at all. Could be a few weeks, but it could easily be a few months as well.

Hope this helps