Transferring an active domain name involves changing the domain name registrar that provides the registration service, so after the transfer, you will have to manage things like renewal payments or DNS record updates through the new company. The transfer procedure itself is standard with most gTLD and ccTLD extensions. Some country-code extensions are more specific and entail different procedures, but in the general case transferring a domain name involves several basic steps 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 operators. It’s a standard feature supported by all gTLDs. 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 name. The lock can be annulled only through the account where the domain is registered in the first place and all new domain names that support this functionality are locked by default the moment they are registered.