The core idea behind topological qubits is the use of anyons, which are quasiparticles that occur in two-dimensional systems. These particles exhibit non-Abelian statistics, meaning that their wave functions change in a non-trivial way when they are exchanged. The state of a system of anyons is determined by the history of their braiding, which is a topological property. This braiding can be used to encode and manipulate quantum information in a way that is inherently protected from local errors.
