Litecoin Payment Acceptance Setup

Setting Up Litecoin Payment Acceptance

Litecoin is a Bitcoin fork with a shorter block time (~2.5 min vs 10 min) and different network parameters. The technical integration is practically identical to Bitcoin: the same HD wallets (BIP-32/44), the same address types, the same UTXO model. If you already have Bitcoin integration, adding Litecoin is a matter of changing network parameters and a few constants.

Addresses and Network Parameters

Litecoin supports the same address types as Bitcoin, but with different prefixes:

The coin type for Litecoin in BIP-44 is 2 (versus Bitcoin — 0).

Implementation via bitcoinjs-lib

bitcoinjs-lib supports Litecoin via custom network parameters — no separate library needed:

import * as bitcoin from 'bitcoinjs-lib'
import { BIP32Factory } from 'bip32'
import * as ecc from 'tiny-secp256k1'

bitcoin.initEccLib(ecc)
const bip32 = BIP32Factory(ecc)

// Litecoin network parameters
const LITECOIN: bitcoin.Network = {
  messagePrefix: '\x19Litecoin Signed Message:\n',
  bech32: 'ltc',          // prefix for Native SegWit addresses
  bip32: {
    public: 0x019da462,   // Ltpv / Ltub
    private: 0x019d9cfe,
  },
  pubKeyHash: 0x30,       // addresses start with 'L'
  scriptHash: 0x32,       // addresses start with 'M'
  wif: 0xb0,
}

const LITECOIN_TESTNET: bitcoin.Network = {
  messagePrefix: '\x19Litecoin Signed Message:\n',
  bech32: 'tltc',
  bip32: {
    public: 0x0436f6e1,
    private: 0x0436ef7d,
  },
  pubKeyHash: 0x6f,
  scriptHash: 0x3a,
  wif: 0xef,
}

// Generate Native SegWit address (ltc1q...)
function getLitecoinAddress(xpub: string, index: number): string {
  const node = bip32.fromBase58(xpub, LITECOIN)
  const child = node.derive(0).derive(index)
  const { address } = bitcoin.payments.p2wpkh({
    pubkey: Buffer.from(child.publicKey),
    network: LITECOIN,
  })
  if (!address) throw new Error('Address derivation failed')
  return address
}

Transaction Monitoring

The same tools available for Bitcoin work for Litecoin:

Own node + electrs — the preferred option. electrs supports Litecoin via the --network=litecoin flag. Litecoin Core downloads and syncs faster than Bitcoin (~50 GB vs ~600 GB for a full node).

Public API — Blockchair supports Litecoin:

async function checkLitecoinPayment(
  address: string,
  expectedLit: number // in litecoins, not litoshi
): Promise<'pending' | 'confirmed'> {
  const res = await fetch(
    `https://api.blockchair.com/litecoin/dashboards/address/${address}`
  )
  const data = await res.json()
  const stats = data.data[address]?.address

  const confirmedReceived = stats?.received / 1e8 ?? 0
  return confirmedReceived >= expectedLit ? 'confirmed' : 'pending'
}

Blockchair API is free up to 1,430 requests/day. For production you need a node.

Number of Confirmations

Due to faster blocks (~2.5 min), you can require more confirmations for the same astronomical time:

In practice, 6–12 Litecoin confirmations are sufficient for most payments.

Conversion and Exchange Rates

When invoicing in LTC you need the current rate. Options:

// Via CoinGecko (free, no key)
async function getLtcPriceUsd(): Promise<number> {
  const res = await fetch(
    'https://api.coingecko.com/api/v3/simple/price?ids=litecoin&vs_currencies=usd'
  )
  const data = await res.json()
  return data.litecoin.usd
}

// Invoicing: lock in the amount in LTC at the time of creation
// and keep it until expiration (~15 minutes). Don't recalculate every second.

The rate should be locked at the moment of payment address generation and not recalculated during the payment's lifetime. If the user does not pay before expiration — generate a new address with the current rate.

Differences from Bitcoin in Production

Litecoin has historically been used as a "Bitcoin testnet in real conditions" — many updates (SegWit, MimbleWimble via MWEB) came out there first. MWEB (MimbleWimble Extension Blocks) adds optional transaction confidentiality, which brings additional complications for monitoring: MWEB transactions are not visible to standard APIs. If clients pay via MWEB — you need your own node with MWEB support.

Fees in the Litecoin network are historically lower than Bitcoin in absolute values. But this doesn't affect the recipient — the sender pays the fee.