1. A computer implemented method, comprising: receiving by a smart identifier generator operating on a computing device, from a requestor, a request to generate a smart identifier for an entity, the request including one or more data values for one or more parameters; generating or causing to be generated by the smart identifier generator, the requested smart identifier comprising one or more of the data values or derivative data values derived from one or more of the data values; returning or causing to be returned, by the smart identifier generator, the generated smart identifier to the requestor; wherein the entity has an entity type; the request includes the entity type; the one or more data values are for one or more parameters associated with the entity type, and the generating or causing to be generated are based at least in part on the entity type; and the method further comprises receiving by the smart identifier generator, from a custom smart identifier generation function, a registration to register the custom smart identifier generation function to handle generation of smart identifiers for entities of an entity type, and registering the custom smart identifier generation function, by the smart identifier generator, based at least in part on the received registration.