Transferring an existing domain name entails switching the registrar company that provides the domain registration service, so after the transfer itself, you will have to manage things like renewal fees or DNS record modifications through the new registrar. The transfer process is standard with most TLD extensions. Some country-code extensions are more specific and involve different procedures, but in the general case transferring a domain name involves a few necessary procedures and one of them is unlocking the domain. The lock is a security feature, which is being adopted by more and more registry operators. It’s a standard feature supported by all generic Top-Level Domains. If a domain is locked, it won’t be possible to initiate a transfer procedure, so no one can even attempt to take your domain. The 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.