Systems and methods for identity atomization and usage

A method of providing identity information may include: receiving, from a transaction system, a request regarding a transaction; retrieving at least one rule defining a compliant identity based on a type of the transaction, the at least one rule identifying a plurality of identity attributes; retrieving an identity index map including a list of pointers to available identity components; selecting pointers from the identity index map pointing to identity components corresponding to the plurality of identity attributes; outputting, to the transaction system, the compliant identity including information corresponding to each of the identity components, the information including for each identity component at least one of: the selected pointers to the identity component, or the identity component. A method of providing identity information also may include: receiving identity information; processing the received identity information to identity an identity type; retrieving a stored identity type definition for the identity type; atomizing the identity information into a plurality of identity components based on a plurality of attributes defined for the identity type; distributing the identity components to a plurality of different storage locations; and generating and storing an index including pointers to the identity components.