A method of using a distributed ledger maintained solely in a computer network. Wage payment information is received from an employer regarding an employee. A copy of a digital public key uniquely associated with the employee is received. A transaction is issued to the distributed ledger at a time of wage issuance, along with identity data encrypted with the digital public key, the identity data uniquely associated with the employee, the identity data being multi-level identity data based on levels of data sensitivity, and the identity data including information controllable by the employee to designate which level of the multi-level identity data can be accessed using a data level code and a digital signing key belonging to the employee. A level of the multi-level identity data can be made available to a third party upon being identified with the data level code and upon being decrypted with the digital signing key.