<p>Litecoin was having issues with users confusing Bitcoin and Litecoin addresses. To that end, they introduced a new address format for Pay-to-Script-Hash (P2SH) addresses. This new address format encodes the address with an <code>M</code> prefix rather than the original <code>3</code> prefix which is also used by Bitcoin's P2SH address format.</p>

<p>As any underlying address can be expressed in either address format, each address with an <code>M</code> prefix has an equivalent address with a <code>3</code> prefix. They simply are two different encodings of the same P2SH address.</p>

<p>Check out the address in question on the <a href="https://chainz.cryptoid.info/ltc/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">CryptoId</a> block explorer for example:</p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/R9Qmn.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/R9Qmn.png" alt="Screenshot showing both representations of a random Litecoin P2SH address"></a></p>

<p>When you search the address in question on this block explorer, you should be able to see both the <code>M</code> address that you meant to send to as well as the <code>3</code> address that your address now changed to, just like for the random example in the image.
 A transaction output will arrive in the same wallet with either of these two addresses given as destination.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-27T07:19:19.090Z
2018-02-01T02:30:00.100Z
2018-02-01T02:30:00.100Z
Murch
<p>Litecoin addresses have not changed to (3). its just SegWit address.</p>

<p>if you've sent funds to (M) Address so the receiver should have it now.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-29T05:36:31.190Z
Adresses that start with `M` or `3` are not Segwit, but P2SH. ;)
Murch
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-29T09:35:33.993Z
Yeah :D, I don't know why I always fail with this mistake, Maybe because P2SH addresses start with 3 as Segwit
Tailer
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-29T16:28:04.667Z
Well, there are two types of segwit addresses: Native segwit has its own address format (Bech32), and the earlier one more widely deployed is actually P2SH-P2WSH, i.e. a witness script wrapped by a P2SH, so it's not strictly false, it's just that these segwit addresses are a subset of all P2SH and the other segwit addresses aren't P2SH at all. ;)
Murch
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-27T00:27:18.637Z
2018-01-27T00:27:18.637Z
Tailer
<p>I have mistakenly sent my litecoins to (M) as the starting letter of the address, whereas the Litecoin address now has changed to (3) as the starting letter. So can anyone help me to recover this?</p>

<litecoin><address-format>
I have mistakenly sent my LTC to (M) address instead of (3) address
anuj
# I have mistakenly sent my LTC to (M) address instead of (3) address

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-01-26)

I have mistakenly sent my litecoins to (M) as the starting letter of the address, whereas the Litecoin address now has changed to (3) as the starting letter. So can anyone help me to recover this?

**Tags:** litecoin, address-format


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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2018-01-27. Score: 2

Litecoin was having issues with users confusing Bitcoin and Litecoin addresses. To that end, they introduced a new address format for Pay-to-Script-Hash (P2SH) addresses. This new address format encodes the address with an `M` prefix rather than the original `3` prefix which is also used by Bitcoin's P2SH address format.

As any underlying address can be expressed in either address format, each address with an `M` prefix has an equivalent address with a `3` prefix. They simply are two different encodings of the same P2SH address.

Check out the address in question on the [CryptoId](https://chainz.cryptoid.info/ltc/) block explorer for example:

[![Screenshot showing both representations of a random Litecoin P2SH address](https://i.sstatic.net/R9Qmn.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/R9Qmn.png)

When you search the address in question on this block explorer, you should be able to see both the `M` address that you meant to send to as well as the `3` address that your address now changed to, just like for the random example in the image.
A transaction output will arrive in the same wallet with either of these two addresses given as destination.


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### Answer by username_2 on 2018-01-27. Score: -1

Litecoin addresses have not changed to (3). its just SegWit address.

if you've sent funds to (M) Address so the receiver should have it now.

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Adresses that start with `M` or `3` are not Segwit, but P2SH. ;)  
> **username_2**: Yeah :D, I don't know why I always fail with this mistake, Maybe because P2SH addresses start with 3 as Segwit  
> **username_1**: Well, there are two types of segwit addresses: Native segwit has its own address format (Bech32), and the earlier one more widely deployed is actually P2SH-P2WSH, i.e. a witness script wrapped by a P2SH, so it's not strictly false, it's just that these segwit addresses are a subset of all P2SH and the other segwit addresses aren't P2SH at all. ;)  

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