Bitcoin Forum

There are a few types of LTC address. Some starts with M, some ltc and some with 3. What are the differents between these three? It seems like address starts with M is legacy and the others are the same of segwit. Is this correct?

The address starting with 3 is the old format, while the ones with the prefix M is the new. Due to similarities between litecoin's P2SH and Bitcoin's P2SH (BIP 16) addresses which both began with 3, litecoin developed a new address format prefixed by M.
Both addresses are valid but are expressed in different formats to avoid confusion.

L - non-segwit or we can call it Litecoin legacy address
M - nested segwit (P2SH)
ltc1 - native segwit (Bech32)

As explained by Upgrade00, M is the new 3.

P2SH is a general purpose "pay to script hash" script type and can be representing any type of redeem script 2 of which make it a "nested SegWit" while others are the simple P2SH scripts and are treated as defined by BIP-16.

The nested segwit can be of two types.
1. P2SH:- addresses that start with 3 (old addresses)
2. P2WPK(P2SH-P2WPK):- addresses that start with M (new addresses)

You can convert between the standard 3-prefix P2SH address format to M-prefix, you can use this open source tool provided by the Litecoin Foundation: https://litecoin-project.github.io/p2sh-convert/  The source code can be viewed here: https://github.com/litecoin-project/p2sh-convert. The converter can also run offline for safety reasons.

Most wallets can be using the new (P2WPK) (P2SH-P2WPK) litecoin nested segwit addresses but some exchange may still be using the old (P2SH) format. And you can easily convert from 3 (P2SH) types of lite coin addresses into the M (P2WPK) (P2SH-P2WPK) type.

Corresponding litecoin 3-prefixes addresses have the same private key with the corrsponding M addresses. You can use the converter above to convert from one to another. It is completely open source.

The reason for the convertion is to minimize the confusion of bitcoin nested segit address that start from 3 with the litecoin segwit address that also started from 3. So the litecoin addess that start from 3 is converted to litecoin M address.

To know more about this, you can read the content from the link below:
https://cryptofacilities.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360006040974-Litecoin-Address-Format

I don't really understand this explanation,can you make it more brief,let make comprehend it.@yogee

Pay to script hash (P2SH) is the old nested segwit= 3-prefix addresses
Pay To Script Hash Pay To Witness Public Key Hash (P2SH-P2WPK) is the new segwit = M-prefix addresses

The 3-prefix address was old format, and similar to bitcoin nested addresses. People are mistakenly sending bitcoin to the 3-prefix address type. Litecoin developer later created M-prefix addresses. It has the same private key with 3-prefix addresses, and there is nothing to worry about. You can use the above converter to convert it from 3- prefix to M-prefix addresses. But most litecoin wallet are using M-prefix addresses which is the new address. But some exchanges can still be using 3-prefix addresses in which you can convert the 3-prefix to M-prefix type which is better to avoid confusing the address to a bitcoin 3-prefix (P2SH) addresses.

I think the main purpose isn't different with Bitcoin address where you was generated (M same as 3), Segwit address can decrease the fee.