Transferring an existing domain name entails switching the company that handles the registration service, so after the transfer itself, you will have to manage things like renewal payments or DNS updates through the new domain registrar. The transfer process itself is standard with most Top-Level Domain extensions. Some country-code extensions are more specific and involve different procedures, but in the general case transferring a domain name entails a few basic procedures and one of them is unlocking the domain name. The domain lock is a security feature, which is being embraced by more and more domain name registry operators. It’s a standard feature supported by all generic top-level domain names. If a domain is locked, it will not be possible to start a transfer procedure, so nobody can even try to snatch your domain. The lock can be removed only through the account where the domain is registered in the first place and all new domains that support this option are locked by default the moment they are registered.