Transferring an already registered domain name entails changing the domain name registrar that provides the domain registration service, so after the transfer itself, you’ll have to manage things like renewal fees or DNS record updates through the new registrar company. The transfer procedure is standard with most top-level domain name extensions. Some country-code extensions are more specific and entail different steps, but in the general case transferring a domain name involves several necessary steps and one of them is unlocking the domain. The lock is a security option, which is being adopted by more and more domain registry operators. It’s a standard feature supported by all generic Top-Level Domains. If a domain is locked, it won’t be possible to start a transfer procedure, so nobody can even attempt to take your domain. The lock can be removed only through the account where the domain is registered and all new domain names that support this feature are locked by default the moment they are registered.