Transferring an existing domain involves switching the registrar that provides the domain name registration service, so after the transfer itself, you’ll have to manage things like renewal fees or DNS record updates through the new registrar. The transfer procedure itself is standard with most Top-Level Domain extensions. Certain country-code extensions are more specific and entail different steps, but in the general case transferring a domain entails several basic procedures and one of them is unlocking the domain name. The lock is a safety feature, which is being embraced by more and more domain registry organizations. It is a default feature supported by all generic Top-Level Domains. If a domain name is locked, it will not be possible to initiate a transfer procedure, so no one can even attempt to register your domain. The domain lock can be removed only through the account where the domain is registered and all new domain names that support this functionality are locked by default the moment they are registered.