A method for loading objects from hash chains. A version chain of a class for a serialized object is located in an instance block of an instance chain. A class version of the serialized object is compared to a current version of the class. When the class version of the serialized object matches the current version of the class, a runtime object is loaded by deserializing the serialized object. When the class version of the serialized object does not match the current version of the class: one or more field values are extracted from the serialized object; a converter function is applied to the one or more field values to generate one or more converted field values; and a runtime object that matches the current version is loaded with the one or more converted field values.