Transferring an existing domain name entails switching the domain registrar that provides the registration service, so after the transfer, you’ll have to manage things like renewal fees or DNS entry modifications through the new registrar. The transfer procedure itself is standard with most gTLD and ccTLD extensions. Certain country-code extensions are more specific and entail different steps, but in the general case transferring a domain name involves a few necessary steps and one of them is unlocking the domain name. The lock is a security feature, which is being embraced by more and more domain name registry operators. It’s a default feature supported by all generic top-level domain names. If a domain is locked, it will be impossible to start a transfer process, so nobody can even try to snatch your domain name. The lock can be annulled only through the account where the domain name is registered in the first place and all new domains that support this feature are locked by default when they are registered.