Transferring an already registered domain involves switching the domain name registrar that provides the domain name registration service, so after the transfer, you will have to manage things like renewal payments or DNS modifications through the new domain registrar. The transfer process is standard with most top-level domain name extensions. Certain country-code extensions are more specific and entail different procedures, but in the general case transferring a domain name involves a few basic steps and one of them is unlocking the domain. The lock is a security feature, which is being adopted by more and more domain name registry operators. It’s a default feature supported by all generic TLDs. If a domain name is locked, it won’t be possible to initiate a transfer procedure, so no one can even try to register your domain. The lock can be annulled only through the account where the domain is registered in the first place and all new domains that support this functionality are locked by default when they are registered.