Transferring an already registered domain entails switching the company that handles the domain registration service, so after the transfer itself, you’ll have to manage things like renewal payments or DNS modifications through the new domain registrar. The transfer process is standard with most gTLD and ccTLD extensions. Some country-code extensions are more specific and involve different steps, but in the general case transferring a domain name entails a few necessary steps and one of them is unlocking the domain name. The lock is a safety feature, which is being embraced by more and more registry organizations. It’s a standard feature supported by all generic TLDs. If a domain name is locked, it will be impossible to start a transfer process, so no one can even attempt to register your domain. The lock can be annulled only through the account where the domain is registered and all new domains that support this feature are locked by default the moment they are registered.