Transferring an existing domain entails switching the company that handles the registration service, so after the transfer, you will have to manage things like renewal payments or DNS record modifications through the new domain registrar. The transfer process itself is standard with most domain extensions. Some country-code extensions are more specific and involve different steps, but in the general case transferring a domain name entails several necessary steps and one of them is unlocking the domain. The domain lock is a security feature, which is being adopted by more and more domain registry operators. It’s a default feature supported by all generic top-level domain names. If a domain is locked, it won’t be possible to initiate a transfer procedure, so no one can even try to steal your domain. The lock can be annulled only through the account where the domain is registered and all new domain names that support this option are locked by default the moment they are registered.