Creteva
Creator Economy Marketplace & Live Commerce Platform.
“Consolidated streaming, commerce, and community with sub-second Gemini AI content safety moderation.”
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Creator Ecosystem Engineered for High Concurrency
Creteva was engineered as an all-in-one ecosystem unifying low-latency live streaming, creator digital/physical storefronts, direct messaging, and automated content safety checks powered by Google Gemini AI.
Project at a Glance
A high-performance dark-mode creator ecosystem bridging artists and fans through real-time streaming, exclusive content feeds, duplex chat channels, and dynamic storefronts backed by Stripe Connect.
Creator Economy & Real-Time Live Commerce
Media Startups & Independent Creators
Q1 - Q3
Unified streaming, storefront, and chat under a single authenticated wallet and identity system.
The Problem
Creators are forced to juggle separate platforms for live broadcasting, direct messaging, paywalled feeds, and digital merch. This creates fragmented fan experiences, massive transaction fees, and zero unified content moderation.
Fragmented tools: Patreon for subscriptions, Twitch for streaming, Shopify for merch, Discord for chat.
High platform fees across 4 different subscription and checkout providers.
Lack of real-time automated safety moderation for user-generated text and media uploads.
High latency in live stream chat and presence synchronization.
Goals
Technical Goals
- Low-latency HLS streaming via Mux with synchronized duplex chat rooms.
- Sub-second image and text NSFW safety classification via Google Gemini AI SDK.
- Secure creator payouts and direct-to-creator fan subscriptions via Stripe Connect.
- High-efficiency Fastify 5 microservices gateway with schema-validated routes.
Business Goals
- Unify all creator revenue streams (tips, subscriptions, products) into one wallet.
- Eliminate platform switching friction for fans and creators.
- Protect platform reputation with automated AI-driven trust and safety gates.
My Role
Principal Systems Architect
Core Responsibilities
- Designed the Fastify 5 API gateway architecture and MongoDB/Mongoose data schema.
- Engineered the live streaming lobby and viewer room with hls.js and Socket.io.
- Integrated Stripe Connect onboarding and custom checkout elements.
- Implemented Google Gemini multimodal AI moderation pipelines for image and text uploads.
Primary Focus Areas
Solution
A unified dark-mode web application engineered with Next.js 16 and Fastify 5. The platform merges live broadcast rooms, direct messaging, digital goods marketplace, and automated Gemini moderation into a single cohesive platform.
Low-Latency Live Streaming
HLS broadcast player with real-time viewer presence and socket-powered tipping animations.
Stripe Connect Financial Engine
Automated split-payments, creator wallets, cashout schedules, and Elements checkout.
AI Moderation Guardrails
Multimodal Gemini AI scanning all uploaded images and chat comments before public broadcast.
Architecture & Data Flow
High-performance architecture integrating Mux video ingest, Fastify 5 API gateway, Socket.io duplex cluster, and Gemini AI safety gateways.
Broadcast Ingestion
Mux Video / RTMPCreator streams via RTMP to Mux broadcast servers; live HLS stream generated.
API Gateway & Auth
Fastify 5 / Node.js 20+Fastify 5 routes validate session tokens and enforce JSON schema input compliance.
Duplex Chat & Viewer Presence
Socket.io / RedisSocket.io synchronizes viewer comments, live tips, and typing status with sub-50ms latency.
Gemini AI Moderation Gate
Google Gemini AI SDKBase64 image uploads and chat messages pass through Gemini AI safety filters before persistence.
Stripe Connect Billing
Stripe Connect & WebhooksDirect fan subscriptions and digital product purchases routed through Stripe Connect accounts.
Core Features
Low-Latency Livestreaming Lobby
Mux & hls.jsDynamic viewer rooms with HLS playback, live tip leaderboards, and instant chat reactions.
Gemini Multimodal Content Moderation
Sub-second AI gatingAutomatic NSFW and toxic content filtering on all uploaded media and chat messages.
Digital & Physical Marketplace
Stripe Elements checkoutFull e-commerce storefront for creator courses, digital presets, and merchandise.
Creator Financial Center & Wallet
Automated payoutsReal-time revenue analytics charts with Recharts, balance tracking, and instant Stripe cashouts.
Engineering Decisions
Fastify 5 over Express
Why: Fastify delivers 3x higher throughput and native schema validation out of the box, essential for real-time webhooks.
Gemini AI SDK for Moderation vs Third-Party Vision APIs
Why: Gemini allowed joint text-and-image contextual understanding (e.g. meme text on images) at a fraction of the cost.
Challenges
Socket Scalability during Live Events: Sudden spikes in chat messages degraded server memory.
Implemented Redis Pub/Sub socket adapters and client-side message batching.
Sustained thousands of concurrent viewers with zero socket disconnects.
Payment Webhook Race Conditions: Users accessing digital downloads before Stripe webhook confirmed payment.
Engineered idempotent webhook listeners with optimistic unlocking and rollback safety.
100% reliable purchase fulfillment with zero duplicate charges.
Implementation Timeline
Fastify Scaffolding & Mongoose Models
- JSON schema validated REST routes
- JWT authentication & creator profiles
- MongoDB database indexing
Mux Integration & Socket Chat
- Low-latency HLS stream player
- Socket.io duplex messaging and presence
- Broadcaster manual and stream key generator
Marketplace & Wallet Hub
- Stripe Connect onboarding flow
- Digital/physical product storefront
- Creator analytics dashboards with Recharts
Gemini AI Gate & Production Hardening
- Real-time base64 image/text moderation pipeline
- Dark-mode UI polish and mobile responsiveness
- End-to-end load testing and launch
Results & Metrics
Low-latency broadcast delivery to global viewers.
Average multimodal safety classification latency per upload.
Webhook idempotency rate across Stripe transactions.
Replaced 4 disparate SaaS tools for creators into a single subscription.
Screenshots
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Live Streaming Player & Real-Time Fan Chat
Low-latency broadcast view with interactive chat and live tipping animations.
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Creator Marketplace & Product Detail View
Direct e-commerce storefront with integrated Stripe Elements purchase modal.
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Revenue Analytics & Payout Wallet Dashboard
Visual income tracking and Stripe Connect transfer manager.
Demo Video
Creteva Live Commerce Walkthrough: 3-minute demonstration showing stream initialization, real-time chat, Gemini AI moderation in action, and Stripe checkout.
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Demonstration Highlights:
Lessons Learned
Multimodal AI moderation must be executed asynchronously on media upload to avoid blocking creator publish workflows.
Stripe Connect custom account onboarding requires thorough error boundary handling for international verification.
Duplex WebSocket rooms should decouple viewer counts from message broadcasting to minimize network traffic.
Tech Stack
Frontend
Backend & Gateway
AI & Media
Database & Cache
Business Impact
Creteva gave creators ownership over their audience, eliminating platform fragmentation and recapturing revenue previously lost to intermediary fees.
“Building Creteva showed that creators don't want five apps—they want one lightning-fast workspace where their stream, their store, and their community live together.”