is the bootloader encrytped on a hardware level??? if not there could be an exploit

[tdpolo26]

so i posted this in the droid 4 area and i am sorry for posting again but i realized it prolly wouldnt get any attention there

As far as i have looked i have never seen a copy of a encrypted bootloader anywhere. so this leads me to believe that there isnt a way to get it off the phone (if i am wrong i am sorry i am new to this idea).
So i spent alot of time over christmas building light control boards for a christmas show and programming pics to control the boards. From what i understand the bootloader is on a piece of non volatile rom. which means its prolly on a pic somewhere on its own. Now i think further and if it may not be encrytped on a hardware level becuase the processor and the other devices that require boot would not understand encrypted code. What may be the fact, is that it is not, and the encryption is some where else.
Leading to my idea. if someone knows or can help figure out where the bootloader resides we might be able to extract the code using a pic programmer and then recompile the code and have the source code to the bootloader. Which i am not even sure if this will do anything for us. I havent heard of anyone thinking of this yet so let me know if it is a idea that could work, i would be interested in helping in any way i could